What's it like living in Iceland from a (trans) American's perspective?

[u/shepardsboy]

I'm from the US and wanting to move somewhere that isn't the US when I graduate in a few years.

1. The thing that made me interested in Iceland originally is that it is rated as the best country for trans people in Europe, why is it rated like this and what's it like being trans in Iceland?

2. I know it can be pretty cold during the winter, how does it compare to new England or upstate NY? Also, how is the weather generally, like is it raining constantly or mostly sunny?

3. This might make me sound like an idiot but are the volcanoes ever an issue? When I was a kid I had a really bad fear of volcanoes, I'm mostly over it now but if I saw lava or something I'd start tweaking

4. How widely is English understood? Obviously I'll learn Icelandic if I do end up moving but it seems pretty different from English so I doubt I'll be fluent any time soon

[u/Chespineapple]

Uhhh I'm probably obligated to answer this as a trans woman myself

Our healthcare's good. There's up to a year's wait for hormones but after that the team listens to us about what we want and doesn't block trans women from progesterone or getting high levels or anything. I'm always asked about my mental health at checkups and they've told me it's part of their guidelines to base my medication around that. I haven't heard bad things from trans men/mascs either as far as the current team of endos is concerned. Health insurance also covers pretty much anything, heavily reducing the price of medication, and top surgery for men/mascs and bottom surgery for women/fems is effectively free. (My understanding though is that a prescription from the states doesn't carry over so you'd need to do the waiting list anyway to start any medical treatment). The queer org has a degree of influence and respect too, they're good spokespersons for our specific interests and not just the LGBs, and have influenced legislation like self-id, and strengthened our part of the healthcare service to what it is now. Though it still needs improving and what it does have only came recently. You'll find bigotry in plenty of places, we're not immune to what the world's coming to, and we're far from perfect, but I do agree in that direct transphobia generally isn't socially accepted. At least not in most workplaces. I can't be sure though, I'm just one person.

We Icelanders don't live in New York so we can't help with the comparison. But the cold can easily get into the 5-10 negatives celsius during winter. I'm pretty sure we hit -15 at points? We have varied weather, it can start raining at any time, it's just not as warm as other places. It's been 10-15C in Reykjavík for most of the month and not much hotter during the summer.

If a volcano somehow erupts we'll know days ahead of time like what happened with Grindavík. In general we know where these spots are likely to form, too. The air can get pretty toxic though, nothing lethal but the Grindavík situation means you have to keep an eye on what the weather says about it whenever there's a new eruption spreading fumes your way.

English is widely adopted. There's a habit from even non-english immigrants growing more accustomed to English first before Icelandic because of how easy of a bridge it makes. Anyone planning to actually live here long term though would still need to learn it.

[u/dr-Funk_Eye → u/Chespineapple]

As someone that has worked outside for a long time in Iceland januar and february we get down to -15°c or even -20°c for a month or so, tho the lover number is mostly at night or early in the morning.

[u/The_Daily_Tomato → u/Chespineapple]

As a fellow trans person I'd say this is a pretty fair assessment.

I'm glad you have a good experience with the team. Opposite with me 😊

[u/Chespineapple → u/The_Daily_Tomato]

I imagine it depends on the time, though I've heard of incidents still happening. I only finally got access just under two years ago. It was kind of a nightmare before self id.

[u/The_Daily_Tomato → u/Chespineapple]

It's been about two years since I stopped battling them and just gave up 😂

[u/shepardsboy → u/Chespineapple]

Thank you!! Basically-free surgeries sounds very nice. How long is the wait list usually, and do you need psychiatric letters for it? Also, just for informational purposes the winter temps seem similar to New York (at least the northern parts, outside of NYC).

[u/anarhisticka-maca → u/shepardsboy]

I believe you do need letters but cannot remember exact details, I know at least they make you speak to a gender therapist with their team (my appointment with a therapist was scheduled for about 3 months after I asked for it) and there's another list after you're through that. There are no longer gender affirming surgeries performed in the country through the hospital, they send you to the Netherlands to one of 2 clinics now, which is new. By the way, if you already have hormones you should be able to continue them, but you might have to go to a neighborhood or private clinic just to get the prescription while you're on the waiting list for the gender clinic.

[u/FirefighterOwn973]

Regarding the weather question, most foreigners tend to struggle a lot more with the darkness than the cold. It doesn’t really get that cold here (not like Chicago or Minnesota cold at least), but the winter darkness can cause some serious depression in people that are not used to it. Another shock can also be the lack of real summer. Overall the weather is the biggest downside to Iceland imo, compared to the rest of the world most other things are generally top notch.

[u/dkarason]

Linking to a previous discussion:

Move to Iceland? : r/Iceland

[u/Fredd500 → u/dkarason]

Second this.  No matter how much OP may want to move to Iceland, it may not be possible to do so unless they have skills that an employer needs enough to sponsor a visa.

[u/Sea_Click_872]

The winter weather is pretty varied around the the country. I'm from Akureyri (north) and hated the winter in Reykjavík. What foreigners struggle most with is the darkness in winter and the lack of darkness at night over summer. Just find YT channels with people who've moved here, e.g All things Iceland.

[u/dr-Funk_Eye]

I'm not trans so I may not be fully in the know. But I have trans friends and it is mostly good. There are assholes everywhere but it is mostly positive.

The cold is not the problem. The darkness and constant wind and storms that are much more of a problem for your sanity. According to my imigrant friends getting used to the gloom during winter is wery hard and taking vitamin D is very importnant along with a solid social life can be a life saver literaly. Depresion is a cronic thing in Iceland.

There are active volcanos in Iceland but so far for the past 150 years or so they have not been a major problem. But there are powerfull ones there that can and will at some point be active.  The town of Grindavík has gotten to feel that the past 4-5 years. 

Almost everyone under lets say 55 speaks fine english so you would not have a problem getting by with that. But every one would be impressed if you learned Icelandic. 

You should also be in contact with Trans Ísland https://transisland.is/ they also have a fb group that you should join.

And with Samtökin 78 https://samtokin78.is/ they are the big allaround queer community in Iceland.  Both organastions should be able to get you much better awnsers than we here on reddit can.

Best of luck and I hope you get to make your way here.