Trans Ísland is an Icelandic advocacy organisation that supports transgender people in Iceland. As of 2018, the chairperson of the group was .

History

Trans Ísland was founded in 2007, as a section of

Samtökin '78 Samtökin '78 (officially The National Queer Organisation in English) is the national queer organisation of Iceland, which is an NGO dedicated to the interest and rights of lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, transgender and int ...

. In 2010, the group helped fight for the public broadcaster RÚV to stop using the term “kynskiptingur” (“sex-changer”) in stories about trans people, switching instead to “transfólk.” In 2015, the group assisted in establishing another group, Non-Binary Iceland, its sibling organisation. In 2019, the group was involved in helping draft a new law on legal gender recognition in Iceland, replacing the medicalised system with one based on statutory declaration and allowing individuals to choose a

third gender Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term ''third'' is usually ...

option known as " X" on official documents. The

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...

voted 45–0 to pass the law in June of that year. That year, the group's chairperson,

Owl Fisher Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir, also known as Owl Fisher (born 6 January 1991), is an Icelandic journalist, filmmaker, author and non-binary gender, non-binary trans activist. Early life Fisher was born in Iceland on 6 January 19 ...

was named one of the BBC's 100 Women. In January 2020, the group was awarded a 500,000 ISK grant from the City of Reykjavík's Gunnar Thoroddsen Memorial Fund for humanitarian work. On Women's Rights Day in Iceland that year, organised an event together with the Icelandic Women's Rights Association (IWRA) that saw several different feminist organisations in the country discuss strategies to stop anti-trans sentiment from increasing its influence within Icelandic feminism. In December 2020, Trans Ísland was unanimously granted status as a member association of the IWRA. In January 2021, they collaborated with the RVK Feminist Film Festival for the 2021 edition of the festival.

References

{{LGBT-org-stub LGBT organizations based in Europe LGBT political advocacy groups in Iceland Organizations established in 2007 Transgender organizations 2007 establishments in Iceland

History

See also

References