Reykjavík Grapevine - ágú. 2022, Blaðsíða 8

8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2022
Breaking The Wave:
Transphobia In Iceland
While trans people in Iceland enjoy legal protections, social acceptance is a
whole other story. Can voices of hate be resisted before they come to power?
WORDS: Andie Sophia Fontaine PHOTOS: Art Bicnick
A few days later, Iceland’s queer
community and allies gathered in
front of Parliament to hold a rally in
solidarity with the survivors in Norway.
Many speakers talked about the need for
education to prevent such an act from
happening in Iceland.
However, Norway is, like Iceland, one
of the most queer-friendly countries
in the world. In both countries, same-
sex marriage is legal, hate speech and
discrimination against queer people
is forbidden, polls show most people
support queer rights, and queer educa-
tion can be found in many levels of
schooling.
That said, Iceland and Norway also
share in common a disturbing trend: a
rise in anti-trans rhetoric, in print and
in broadcast media, which is making
life decidedly more dangerous for trans
people in these countries.
It is clear that the law can only go
so far in protecting marginalised
people. As one example, the United
Kingdom has also legally enshrined
many of the same protections for queer
people that Norway and Iceland have,
but the virulent and repeated anti-
trans sentiment–printed in columns,
splashed across headlines, broadcast
over national television–is already
leading to a rise in violence against
trans people in the UK.
With this in mind, the Grapevine
spoke with the president of Iceland’s
largest trans organisation, an academic,
an activist, and a lawmaker to ask: what
effect is Iceland’s media having on
general public attitudes towards trans
people? Where is transphobia most
and least prevalent in Icelandic soci-
ety? And, most importantly, what can
people do to stop hate in Iceland before
it reaches more dangerous levels?
What is Icelandic transphobia like?
While there have always been people in
Iceland who hate trans people, it has not
been until the last few years that hate
for trans people has ramped up.
For example, there does indeed exist
an Icelandic branch of the anti-trans
hate group LGB Alliance, now calling
itself Samtökin 22, which formed a few
years ago, albeit in small and nebulous
numbers. In addition, disgraced former
Prime Minister and current chair of the
Centre Party Sigmundur Davíð Gunn-
laugsson has recently had a sudden
interest in what a woman is.
Within the media, both Morgun-
blaðið and Vísir have printed anti-trans
columns under the guise of “opinion”
pieces, nationally broadcast television
show Ísland Í Dag hosted Jordan Peter-
son to hold forth on many, many false-
hoods about trans people, and last May
news magazine Stundin published an
ill-conceived “exposé” on health care for
trans youth with so many inaccuracies
that former Trans Ísland director Ugla
Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir’s
rebuttal had a word count that rivalled
the original (which, to the magazine’s
credit, was also published by Stundin).
What gives?
The double-edged sword of visibility
Viima Lampinen, president of Trans
Iceland, believes visibility plays a part
in this backlash.
“In my personal opinion, I feel like
because trans topics are
now everywhere, more
than they were even just
four years ago,” they tell
us. “The raised aware-
ness is, in my opinion,
functioning in a twofold
way. One is that it's likely
that more people are now
aware of trans trends,
topics, and issues. This
also includes nonbinary
topics.
“Most people are posi-
tive, at least when encoun-
tering trans and nonbinary people in
person. But when it comes to what they
may personally think, in the comfort
of their own homes, and especially
online, when they don't have to actu-
ally see people eye to eye, they don't have
that emotional accountability that they
would need to always have when you're
encountering another person.
“So, in general, I feel like there is
more awareness and therefore, people
are more used to trans and nonbinary
people, but at the same time, those
harsher, more negative views of trans-
phobia are also more common now.
Because more people are aware of these
issues.”
“I think we’re certainly more aware of
more negative attitudes [towards trans
people] today than five years ago,” Íris
Ellenberger, a historian and assistant
professor at the University of Iceland
School of Education, tells us. “But it's
hard to tell how much of that is people
changing their minds and becoming
more negative to trans people, and how
much of it is people being more open
about their transphobic views and find-
ing that they are more free to express
their transphobic views. So I'm not too
sure that the attitude changes itself, but
it seems that at least people feel more
free to express their negative attitudes
and hatred towards trans people.”
Why these people might feel more
comfortable to express themselves now
than only a few years ago can likely be
attributed to Icelandic transphobes
taking cues from their ideological allies
abroad: they will use the same talking
points, the same dog whistles, and even
cite the same sources in their writing.
That said, Íris sees another possible
explanation.
“Trans people are openly challeng-
ing some truths,” Íris says, such as that
there are only two genders. “To a large
extent, or at least, I think, one of the
reasons that gays and lesbians became
so accepted at the time was the message
was, ‘We only want to be like you, the
rest of the population. We want to marry
and have children. We are not here to
kind of shake up your realities, we want
to keep things as they are, we only want
access to everything, like stuff that you
all hold dear. We don't want to change
all that much.’”
Where is transphobia most (and least)
prevalent?
When asked which sectors of society
harbour the most, or the least, trans-
phobia, the medical community was
cited repeatedly.
“I don't feel safe in the healthcare
system,” says Elínborg Hörpu- og
Önundarbur (Elí for short), an activist
who is trans themselves. “I wonder if
these are people that actually care about
my well being or if they just think I'm
a freak, in a way. Or if they don't take
me seriously. And it doesn't help when
you've had all this leaked information
from the doctors group.”
Here Elí refers to screenshots leaked
earlier this summer from a closed Face-
book group for doctors wherein a post
shared an article advocating “detransi-
tioning” trans people. This article was
“liked” by over 60 doctors in Iceland’s
health care system, with numerous
doctors in the comments thanking the
poster for sharing it.
“It's probably a really big portion of
doctors working in Iceland [who feel
the same],” Elí says. “So that makes you
feel really unsafe.”
Viima also cites the healthcare
system, and emphasises the impor-
tance of education on trans health
issues as a means to help assuage the
situation.
“When it comes to the individu-
als working there, the attitudes are
also changing,” they say. “But we're at
a point where the health care provid-
ers basically need more education on
trans healthcare. It's 2022, we have so
much more research and information
on what trans people want and what it
is like, when it comes to our health care;
what needs to be considered.
“It's not their fault, in a way,” Viima
continues. “They're not given enough
means to do their best. I think in that
sense, their education, the politics of
it, is letting them down. And then that
results in… Well, basically, trans people
are not getting adequate health care.”
When it comes to sectors that are
particularly welcoming of trans people,
Elí cites the teaching department at
the University of Iceland, of which they
say, “they're kind of doing their best to
create quite a safe environment. There's
a big diversity of people both teaching
and studying at this department. So I
feel it could be a place where you could
feel at home, if that makes sense. To feel
included, actively included.”
However, if there’s one sector
that is having a complicated impact
“I think we’re certainly more aware of more
negative attitudes [towards trans people] today
than five years ago.”
On June 25th, a man
walked into the London
Pub in Oslo, Norway,
pulled out a gun, and started
shooting. He would repeat this
at two other locations, killing
two people and wounding 21
before being arrested. He was
expressly motivated by his
hatred of queer people.