I think the Nordic countries, or the Netherlands, are probably not the worst places in the world to be queer.
That really depends on what queer means in that case and which needs have to be met by the legal and healthcare systems. Iceland and Denmark are the only Nordic countries that legally recognize nonbinary genders (the Netherlands do, too). If that’s a relevant issue here, which it very much might be, the list of eligible countries gets really short really quick.
Another thing that may or may not be relevant is when and how gender affirming healthcare becomes necessary. Denmark has the same system of bottlenecking gender affirming care through gender clinics as the UK, and their wait lists are almost as long as a result of that. Same goes for the Netherlands. Any time i’ve talked to a Danish trans person on HRT, they were doing DIY because it’s either that or rotting on the wait list forever, and any time i’ve talked to a Dutch trans person, it’s because they were looking for German clinics for bottom surgery because the domestic options didn’t convince them. IDK about Iceland, i know they tend to rank as the legally most trans-inclusive country in the world, but … it’s an island in the middle of the Atlantic with a population of somewhere around 300k people. That both means an absolutely tiny pool of other queer people around you and that it’s extremely unlikely you’ll find good specialists for gender affirming care domestically.
I mean, as far as societal attitudes go, Netherlands and the Nordics tend to be among the most accepting places for queer people according to surveys. But what that means in practice for a gender non conforming kid is hard to say, as such metrics tend to focus on how prevalent homophobia is and people can be mostly fine with cis gays and at the same time incredibly weird towards trans people, especially nonbinary ones. I’m not expecting these places to be outstandingly bad in that regard, but Sweden and Finland in particular have seen a lot of successful anti-trans campaigning in recent years, especially when it comes to restriction of healthcare for trans minors, and the Netherlands have just elected a right wing government.
That’s not to say any of these places is the worst choice you could make, the situation for us rn isn’t exactly great anywhere outside of our own communities. Just saying that their image of being outstandingly progressive places doesn’t always hold up in reality.
I’m trans and from Denmark and I can confirm this. Gender affirming care in the Nordic countries is awful. Long waitlists, terrible care, lacking surgical coverage, no HRT for minors, basically legal discrimination when it comes to healthcare rights, awful and untrustworthy staff at the gender clinics, etc.
Societal attitudes are alright. Like I haven’t really experienced any direct transphobia towards me that I know of, but transphobia is generally just pervasive in any country and it’s more socially acceptable to be transphobic than homophobic, so you’ll definitely hear transphobic statements here. Transphobia also seems to be on the rise sadly, not too long ago the previous “minister of equality” wrote a straight-up transphobic article, so it’s not looking too good.
That really depends on what queer means in that case and which needs have to be met by the legal and healthcare systems. Iceland and Denmark are the only Nordic countries that legally recognize nonbinary genders (the Netherlands do, too). If that’s a relevant issue here, which it very much might be, the list of eligible countries gets really short really quick.
Another thing that may or may not be relevant is when and how gender affirming healthcare becomes necessary. Denmark has the same system of bottlenecking gender affirming care through gender clinics as the UK, and their wait lists are almost as long as a result of that. Same goes for the Netherlands. Any time i’ve talked to a Danish trans person on HRT, they were doing DIY because it’s either that or rotting on the wait list forever, and any time i’ve talked to a Dutch trans person, it’s because they were looking for German clinics for bottom surgery because the domestic options didn’t convince them. IDK about Iceland, i know they tend to rank as the legally most trans-inclusive country in the world, but … it’s an island in the middle of the Atlantic with a population of somewhere around 300k people. That both means an absolutely tiny pool of other queer people around you and that it’s extremely unlikely you’ll find good specialists for gender affirming care domestically.
I mean, as far as societal attitudes go, Netherlands and the Nordics tend to be among the most accepting places for queer people according to surveys. But what that means in practice for a gender non conforming kid is hard to say, as such metrics tend to focus on how prevalent homophobia is and people can be mostly fine with cis gays and at the same time incredibly weird towards trans people, especially nonbinary ones. I’m not expecting these places to be outstandingly bad in that regard, but Sweden and Finland in particular have seen a lot of successful anti-trans campaigning in recent years, especially when it comes to restriction of healthcare for trans minors, and the Netherlands have just elected a right wing government.
That’s not to say any of these places is the worst choice you could make, the situation for us rn isn’t exactly great anywhere outside of our own communities. Just saying that their image of being outstandingly progressive places doesn’t always hold up in reality.
I appreciate your insight, thanks
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I’m trans and from Denmark and I can confirm this. Gender affirming care in the Nordic countries is awful. Long waitlists, terrible care, lacking surgical coverage, no HRT for minors, basically legal discrimination when it comes to healthcare rights, awful and untrustworthy staff at the gender clinics, etc.
Societal attitudes are alright. Like I haven’t really experienced any direct transphobia towards me that I know of, but transphobia is generally just pervasive in any country and it’s more socially acceptable to be transphobic than homophobic, so you’ll definitely hear transphobic statements here. Transphobia also seems to be on the rise sadly, not too long ago the previous “minister of equality” wrote a straight-up transphobic article, so it’s not looking too good.