World News | Church in Norway Marks Name Change for Transgender Person
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A Lutheran church in Norway has held a name change ceremony for a 49-year-old transgender person in what officials said marked the first such event in a place of worship in the Nordic country.
Helsinki, Jul 18 (AP) A Lutheran church in Norway has held a name change ceremony for a 49-year-old transgender person in what officials said marked the first such event in a place of worship in the Nordic country.
Elin Stillingen lived the first 40 years of her life as a man and legally changed her name and gender last year. She marked the occasion at Saturday's ceremony at the medieval Hoff church north of the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Stillingen said it was particularly important for her that the event took place in a church.
“I'm a member of the Norwegian church, and I'm also about to come out of the closet' as a Christian, so this ceremony is important to me,” Stillingen told Norwegian broadcaster TV2 ahead of the ceremony Saturday.
The occasion was led by pastor Stein Ovesen who planned the ceremony with the Stensveen Foundation, a Norwegian non-governmental organisation supporting people with gender identity and sexual orientation issues.
“I know that so many are grateful that this event has come true, because this goes deep into the lives of people,” Ovesen told TV2.
However, Ovesen acknowledged that not everyone in Norway approved of marking such an event in a church.
“On the conservative wing, you will find priests who are deeply concerned about what we do today. But for me this is an important act that expresses the grace and openness that God shows me,” Ovesen told TV2.
Video footage from TV2 showed Stillingen kneeling down in front of Ovesen at the church filled with her friends and family members. After the ceremony, Stillingen said “it feels very right” and “I'm very, very happy.”
Norwegians, like their Nordic neighbors in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, are predominantly Lutherans. The liberal-minded Nordic countries are strong advocates for LGBT rights and women's rights. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)