Marja-Sisko Aalto (born July 29, 1954) is a
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
writer of
detective fiction and former minister of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church. She was the vicar of the
Imatra
Imatra is a town and municipality in southeastern Finland. Imatra is dominated by Lake Saimaa, the Vuoksi River and the border with Russia. On the other side of the border, away from the centre of Imatra, lies the Russian town of Svetogorsk. ...
parish from 1986 to 2010.
She became notable as Finland's first openly transgender minister.
In 2009, the
Finnish Women's Association named Aalto . Since her resignation as vicar, she has pursued a career as a writer.
Early life and education
Alto was born on July 29, 1954, in
Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta (; sv, Villmanstrand) is a city and municipality in the region of South Karelia, about from the Russian border and from the town of Vyborg (''Viipuri''). It is situated on the shore of the Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, and ...
as the seventh of eight children and was
assigned male at birth. She entered the faculty of theology at the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
in 1973.
Clerical career
Aalto was the vicar of the
Imatra
Imatra is a town and municipality in southeastern Finland. Imatra is dominated by Lake Saimaa, the Vuoksi River and the border with Russia. On the other side of the border, away from the centre of Imatra, lies the Russian town of Svetogorsk. ...
parish from 1986 to 2010.
In November 2008, Aalto came out as
trans woman
A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...
and announced her intent to have
sex reassignment surgery
Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and a ...
. According to Aalto, her parents had decided to give her the name Marja-Sisko if she had been born a girl, as they had hoped. She was preoccupied with the issue of gender from the age of three.
Although her parents had wanted a girl, they did not accept her
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...
. For example, they were angry when Aalto, as a child, asked why she could not wear a skirt when all the other girls did.
Aalto's coming out as a trans woman caused a great controversy in the Church. The bishop of
Mikkeli
Mikkeli (; sv, S:t Michel; la, Michaelia) is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in what used to be the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Etelä-Savo region. The municipality has a population of () (around 34,000 ...
, Voitto Huotari, commented that there is no juridical obstacle for Aalto continuing as a vicar, but predicted that there would be problems.
In 2009, almost 600 members left the Imatra parish. In November 2009, Aalto returned to the job of vicar after spending a year on leave. In March 2010, she requested to be allowed to resign, due in part to the discrimination she faced.
She was elected the notary of
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...
for
Kuopio by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 2010.
Writing career
Since her resignation as vicar, Aalto has pursued a career as a writer of
detective fiction. Aalto's first detective novel, ''Murder in the Cemetery'', was published in Autumn 2013.
[Anu Pöntinen, Marja-Sisko Aallosta dekkaristi](_blank)
Yle.fi, Uutiset, 26.11.2012 Her second novel, ''Deadly Snow'' was published on
National Veterans' Day (Finland) on April 27, 2015. The work is dedicated to the veterans of the
Lapland War
During World War II, the Lapland War ( fi , Lapin sota; sv, Lapplandskriget; german: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. ...
and continues the story of the protagonist of the previous book.
Personal life
Aalto has been married twice, and has three children.
Works
Annette Savolainen series
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Others
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References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalto, Marja-Sisko
1954 births
Living people
20th-century Finnish Lutheran clergy
21st-century Finnish Lutheran clergy
21st-century Finnish novelists
Detective fiction writers
Discrimination against transgender people
Finnish mystery writers
Finnish women novelists
LGBT Lutheran clergy
Finnish LGBT novelists
Finnish transgender people
Finnish crime fiction writers
People from Imatra
Transfeminists
Transgender women writers
Transgender novelists
Women Lutheran clergy