Iceland review - 2016, Page 79

76 ICELAND REVIEW ICELAND REVIEW 77
The newly-elected chair of the
National Queer Organization of Iceland,
María Helga Guðmundsdóttir, speaks
with Ingibjörg Rósa Björnsdóttir about
fighting prejudice in sport, the difference
between being queer in India and
Iceland and the controversial decision
to include a BDSM society in a
queer organization.
I felt that I’d always regret it if I didn’t say or do something
to set a good example. Firstly, if I kept quiet about being
queer myself, and secondly, if I didn’t make sure that my
sports club is welcoming for queer people,” says María Helga
Guðmundsdóttir, who was recently elected chair of The
National Queer Organization of Iceland (Samtökin ’78). A
successful karate athlete and sports instructor working with
children and teenagers, María Helga has criticized Icelandic
sports clubs for not taking enough action against queer prej-
udice in sports. “[If] perhaps I learned some years later that
I might have had a queer pupil who hadn’t felt comfortable
about talking about their life and identity amongst their
friends in the club, and therefore had dropped out of the sport,
I would feel as if I’d failed them completely. I can’t guarantee
that by speaking openly about these issues I’m changing the
attitude of individuals, but then at least I haven’t failed those
who seek my support and feel more secure because somebody
else has paved the way,” she continues.
CHANGING FRAME OF REFERENCE
Born and raised in the capital area, María Helga says she was
bullied growing up, as she says she didn’t really fit into the
conventional mold for schoolgirls growing up. “There was
about a five-year period where I didn’t fit in so well with my
classmates. It certainly didn’t help that I was a bit of a tomboy,
not girly at all, so that was perhaps the most obvious vulnera-
bility. But I was also an outstanding student and not ashamed
of that. And I had a big mouth and didn’t keep my opinions
to myself. If I was outraged by something I spoke up and if I
thought something was lame, I also said so. I’ve never wanted
to follow fashion and thought it was unbelievably silly to fol-
low someone’s rules about what looked good and what not and
wasn’t diplomatic enough to keep quiet about it, so that didn’t
gain me any popularity either,” she quips.
After college, María Helga moved to California and stud-
P R O F I L E
PHOTOS BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.