OPINION Ugla Stefanía writes about the relevance of Trans Awareness week.
With Trans Awareness week being celebrated across the globe around this time of year, it’s important to reflect on why we still have days and weeks like this. In recent weeks there has been a real barrage of anti-LGBTQIA+ hatred that’s bubbled to the surface in public discourse in Iceland, showcasing that there is still work to do.
But thankfully this barrage seems to be led by a very small minority of people, who have increasingly become more absurd in their claims as they’ve gone on. It started with claims that LGBTQIA+ inclusive education was ‘transing’ kids, and that comprehensive sex education was teaching young children ‘to masturbate’ and showing them ‘graphic sex’.
While none of these things are true, these types of claims became incessantly loud for a couple of weeks, despite being routinely dismissed by professionals in the field, as well as the government and relevant institutions. It seems that this group of people cares very little for evidence and best practice, and are more concerned with peddling misinformation and straight up lies about important education for young people.
In recent weeks the discourse from this group has become even more absurd, their slogans including things like: “Get the porn out!” and “leave the children alone”, and most recently someone suggested that the increase in mould in primary school buildings is due to sex-education, and the lack of studies on Christianity. How this individual made this conclusion is still a bit unclear, but I reckon the next ‘protest’ this group holds will be an interesting one.
Most recently someone suggested that the increase in mould in primary school buildings is due to sex-education, and the lack of studies on Christianity. How this individual made this conclusion is still a bit unclear, but I reckon the next ‘protest’ this group holds will be an interesting one.
As a trans person in the public eye, some of this hatred and discourse has been directed at me personally – including three men objectifying my body and theorising about what type of sex I have with my partner, asking questions like: “has this freak cut off their junk”, and someone indirectly suggesting I commit suicide. With people like that at the helm, we sadly don’t have to be very worried they’ll achieve much.
The reality is that the majority of Icelandic society supports LGBTQIA+ people – and the most recent Pride in Iceland showed somewhere between 70,000 – 100,000 people attending. For a population of 375,000, that’s a huge number of people.
In contrast, around 15 people showed up for the latest ‘global peace walk’ protesting LGBTQIA+ education and comprehensive sex education, hosted by the aforementioned group of conspiracy theorists.
But the harassment, discrimination and hate speech that still permeates Icelandic society, in particular in online discourse, is still very much real and has negative consequences. While we have made it far as a country and the majority of people support us, there are still sections of society that hold uninformed and prejudiced views about our community, with some of them being incredibly hostile.
The global rise in anti-trans rhetoric has also been painfully felt in Iceland, where old homophobia is being dressed up in a new costume, and directed at trans people instead. This includes all the same tired old tales about ‘safety’, where trans people are wrongfully painted as the aggressors, as the narratives turn reality on its head in their unhealthy and obsessive tirade against us.
Thankfully we have been able to stand stronger against it than many other countries around Europe, and that is in part thanks to our progress of gender equality, and the positive relationships and solidarity between the LGBTQIA+ movement and the women’s rights movement. A recent example of the solidarity between them is the recent Women’s Strike, which is now officially explicitly a strike for all women and non-binary people.
But while we’ve made important steps that, as an example, put us on the top of the Trans Rights Map 2023 recently published by Transgender Europe, Iceland is far from perfect.
This trans awareness week I want to call out to all our allies to continue fighting for us, challenging transphobia where they encounter it, and make it known that such things will not be tolerated in our society.
LGBTQIA+ people in Iceland still experience discrimination and harassment in most areas of life – whether that be at work, at school, on the street, when seeking services or even within their own families.
Research about LGBTQIA+ people in the job market in Iceland shows significant gaps in equality, young LGBTQIA+ students experience increased bullying and harassment, LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees still face lack of understanding and recognition, and the waiting lists for trans health care in Iceland continue to be far too long, leaving trans people in limbo.
And these are just a few of the challenges we still face in Iceland.
It’s vitally important that we never get complacent, and we also remember that things can change in an instant given the right circumstances, or as we like to say in Iceland: skjótt skipast veður í lofti.
So for this trans awareness week I want to call out to all our allies to continue fighting for us, challenging transphobia where they encounter it, and make it known that such things will not be tolerated in our society. We need to continue to expose anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric for what it is: conspiracy theories, misinformation and blatant bigotry.
We need to make it clearer now more than ever that anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric is not welcome here, and continue to inform and educate people, to dispel misinformation and eradicate discrimination.
In the words of Marsha P. Johnson: No freedom for some of us, without liberation for all of us.
