Anna Kristjánsdóttir is an Icelandic transgender activist and former marine engineer who played a pioneering role in the struggle for transgender rights in Iceland. She was among the first Icelandic transgender women to share her story publicly, helping to bring visibility to a community that had long been marginalised and misunderstood. After years of struggling to find acceptance and appropriate medical support in her home country, Anna moved to Sweden in 1989, where she was finally able to pursue her transition. She underwent gender-affirming surgery in April 1995 and returned to Iceland the following year. After returning to Iceland, Anna faced considerable prejudice in her professional life, at times having to leave her job because of discrimination. Nevertheless, she persevered, and her experiences helped shape her commitment to improving the lives of other transgender people.
In 2007, she co-founded Trans-Iceland, an organisation that became an important voice for the country's transgender community. She also contributed her expertise as a marine engineer to her work and continued working as a technical professional, including as a control room engineer at Reykjavík Energy and aboard merchant vessels. Anna's story is one of courage, determination and pioneering activism. From being almost alone as an openly transgender woman in Iceland to helping advance dialogue between transgender people and public authorities, she witnessed and contributed to important changes in Icelandic society. Her experience offers a valuable perspective on the personal challenges, professional discrimination and collective efforts that have shaped the fight for transgender equality in Iceland.
Monika: Anna, welcome, and thank you for joining me today!
Anna: Thank you, Monika, for giving me this honour.
Monika: To begin, tell us a little about yourself, your education and your work.
Anna: I am educated as a marine engineer officer and still work as a technical person. Now I work as a control room engineer at Reykjavík Energy, and I go out to sea on merchant vessels every summer. I also volunteer as an engineer aboard a SAR (Search and Rescue) boat, similar to the RNLI service in Great Britain.
Monika: You are seen as an icon and a legend of the transgender movement in Iceland. How do you carry that burden?
Anna: I never tried to be such a legend. I tried to go through my transition for myself; it was a pure coincidence that I became the face of the transsexual movement in Sweden in the early 90s, and I lost my “virginity” as a transgendered person making the transition in peace. I became known in Sweden and Iceland, and the Lutheran bishop of Iceland at that time asked God to save his soul from this terrible person. :)
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| At 15, aboard an old deep-sea trawler in spring 1967. |
Monika: Give us a sense of scale: how big is the Icelandic transgender community?
Anna: We are approximately 50 to 60, but we still have many persons hiding in their closets, often because of their age or their marital status. They have decided to keep it that way until some changes occur in their lives or in society.
Monika: The creation of Trans-Iceland in 2007 seems to have become an important reference point for the community. What was the situation of Icelandic transgender people before that?
Anna: When I came back to Iceland in 1996, I was the “only gay in the village.” I was simply alone there, as the transgendered Icelandic persons of that time were living abroad, just as I had before, and the only FtM transsexual I knew about never came out and is still in the closet.
Monika: So what finally changed, and how did the founding of an organisation come about?
Anna: A few more persons came out later, but the big breakthrough for transgender persons was the founding of TGEU in Vienna in 2005, and for the health authorities, the WPATH conference in Chicago in 2007, where the Icelandic authorities opened discussions with the transgender movement, with positive results for most transgender persons. The foundation of Trans-Iceland was simply a necessary result of this movement.
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| Engine repair work, 1981. |
Monika: You are often described as the first Icelander to undergo gender reassignment surgery, and you had to travel to Sweden for it. Is the same procedure available in Iceland today?
Anna: I was the second Icelander to undergo gender reassignment surgery. The first one, a good friend of mine, had her surgery in Norway a few years before me, but she decided to keep it for herself, her family and friends. At that time, we had no possibility to do anything in Iceland, so we had to move abroad and live there for years to earn the acceptance of the foreign society.
Monika: How did you build your life abroad before the operation?
Anna: I did so in Sweden for years and became a Swedish citizen before I had my surgery in 1995 and moved back home a year later.
Monika: And what does the situation look like at home now?
Anna: Today there is a good possibility for gender reassignment surgery in Iceland, and there have been almost twenty surgeries in Iceland during the last five years.
Monika: Turning to the present, what is on the agenda of Trans-Iceland these days?
Anna: It’s as always: to provide support to transgender people and to make connections between them and the authorities, in an attempt to introduce as many new changes in the legislation as possible.
Monika: How would you describe the current situation of transgender women in Icelandic society?
Anna: It’s getting better and better every year, and now it’s almost as good as in Europe.
Monika: Now to your own story. How old were you when you transitioned, and was it a difficult process?
Anna: I had my surgery when I was 43 years of age. I fought for my existence as a woman for eleven years, as there was no understanding of it in Iceland at that time. After five years of struggling, I moved to Stockholm, Sweden, in 1989.
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| The Pride Parade, 2013. |
Monika: Did any transgender role models guide you during your transition?
Anna: One person has a place in my heart: April Ashley. She was not only the first transgender person I had ever heard of, in the early 60s, but we also had a similar childhood in poverty and both went out to sea, maybe to prove our manhood that never was there.
Monika: Coming out is rarely easy. What was the hardest part for you?
Anna: Partly it was my own prejudice, at least while I lived in Sweden, where workmates and chiefs showed me good support when I went through physical difficulties.
Monika: And what about the years after you returned to Iceland?
Anna: The worst of all was the discrimination I faced in my professional life in Iceland from 1997 until 2000. I had to leave my work twice in the first three years because of prejudice, but everything settled down and I am still working there. Most of those who discriminated against me became my friends later; they were simply misunderstanding transgenderism.
Monika: Some say transgender rights are the new frontier for human rights. Would you agree?
Anna: Yes, of course!
Monika: Have any Scandinavian books, films or events about transgenderism caught your attention recently?
Anna: The film Ångrarna (Regretters) was very interesting. One of the persons from the film told me about her regrets shortly after her transition, and I doubted her seriousness even before her surgery.
Monika: Transgender causes are usually promoted together with those of the other LGBT communities, yet the T comes last in the abbreviation. Is the transgender community able to promote its own cause within the group?
Anna: In most cases, yes. Not always.
Monika: Harvey Milk became the face of gay activism in the USA in the 60s and 70s. Is there anyone in the Scandinavian transgender society whose actions could be compared to his?
Anna: No. I can hardly believe it. I can point at our own ex-prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, a lovely lady and a good friend of mine, and her wife, Jónina Leósdóttir. Their situations are simply too different to be compared. Jóhanna was prime minister in a society that accepts homosexuality and LGBT, but Harvey Milk wasn’t. He had to fight in a society that hated him.
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| Eyjafjallajökull eruption. |
Monika: Do you take part in politics or in any lobbying campaigns? And can transgender women make a difference in that arena?
Anna: Yes. I am a member of the Social Democratic Alliance in Iceland, but I am also a pacifist. I am a member of the peace movement and an active member of Amnesty International.
Monika: Love shapes every life in its own way. What importance does it have in yours?
Anna: It’s difficult to tell. I lived as a heterosexual person in my former life, and I have never changed my love for women. I was married and had three children.
Monika: And how has your family grown since then?
Anna: Now I have six grandchildren, and I try to be in good contact with them.
Monika: Does a partner have a place in your life today?
Anna: I am not such a person who can’t live without another person. I am simply too selfish and eccentric for another person in my life, even though I love many other women in my heart.
Monika: Many transgender women put their life stories into memoirs. Have you ever thought about writing one yourself?
Anna: Yes. I have already written most of it, but no publisher in Iceland wants to publish it. I understand that very well. Such a book would be a disaster because I have experienced so many miscellaneous things in my life. Maybe I will make a new attempt to write my memoirs later.
Monika: Are you working on any new projects at the moment?
Anna: I am almost 63 years of age. I have been a front person of transgenderism for decades. Today, we have young transgender persons who are able to take over the activism, and I am ready to leave it to them. My time in activism is over, but I will enjoy it for as long as possible, as a senior member.
Monika: What would you recommend to transgender girls who are struggling with gender dysphoria?
Anna: Very simple. Get on and don’t surrender. It’s your life and you have to live it!
Monika: Anna, thank you so much for this interview!
Anna: Thank you, Monika!
All the photos: courtesy of Anna Kristjánsdóttir.
© 2014 - Monika Kowalska
