Lesbian Says She Faces Jail for Trans Remarks But Her Critics Say Otherwise

A Norweigan artist who said she has been charged by police for saying "men can't be lesbians" faces criminal charges and potential jail time for her comments.

Tonje Gjevjon, a lesbian who competed to represent Norway in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with her group the Hungry Hearts, is in hot water for comments she made on Facebook on October 1, where she complained about Norway's "gender identity politics."

She was later informed by the authorities that she was under police investigation for some of the content in that post.

Gjevjon claimed she is under investigation for saying "men can't be lesbians," which is "unequivocally a lie," according to Aleksander Sørlie, the founder of the trans advocacy group, Norwegian Patient Organization for Gender Incongruence (PKI).

"There is no one who is educated on this law, even slightly, who would make that claim," Sørlie said, adding: "We don't think that statement should be illegal, we are also pro-free speech. She needs to be honest about why she is being investigated...she cannot lie and make up a story that is actually about harassment and not about some relatively minor comment about biology."

The law he is referring to is Section 185 of the Penal Code, which outlaws hateful speech made with "intent or gross negligence" against people based on race, skin color, religion, life circumstance, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or reduced functional capacity.

Police confirmed with Newsweek, that it is in fact for the potential breach of Section 185 that Gjevjon is being investigated.

In the Facebook post, Gjevjon targeted Norwegian activist Christine Jentoft, a trans woman who is a lesbian and a mother to an 11-year-old daughter.

"It's just as impossible for men to become lesbian as it is for men to become pregnant," Gjevjon wrote. "Men are men regardless of their sexual fetishes."

She "deadnamed" Jentoft—using a trans person's birth name rather than chosen name—and referred to trans women as men throughout the post.

Gjevjon wrote that trans women like "[sic] heterosexual Lesbian Men such as Christine Jentoft have, by decision made in the Storting (Norway's parliament), been given mandate in the law to press charges against lesbian women like me, and all other women and men who express aversion at the attempts made by these men to use the legislation against heterosexual men/women and lesbian women, who points out how damn humiliating it is that we have to accept the b*******-rubbish contained in gender identity and packaged as the vulnerability of a minority. "

She also accused LGBTQ organizations in Norway of using legislation passed in 2016 "to report people who do not want to comply with this insane belief regime."

But Jentoft, a prominent Norweigan transgender advocate, didn't want the police involved because she "had no intention of doing anything about" Gjevjon's post.

"I found it ridiculous that she was literally quoting an already existing verdict from the Supreme Court, in an attempt to get herself investigated and convicted by the police. So, the police had to open an investigation against her without telling me," Jentoft told Newsweek, saying she has been the target of a harassment campaign by Gjevjon for years.

"She's totally free to voice those opinions, the problem is when she keeps voicing discriminatory opinions repeatedly towards the same person for years and years," Jentoft said.

Sørlie also said the artist had the "intent to provoke the police which might end up having her taking to court," and added, "she has told me explicitly to take her to court."

Gjevjon admitted one of the motivations behind the post was to get the attention of authorities and have the chance to share her beliefs in the court system.

"This is where it belongs in, in the legal system, and I want to talk about it in the legal system," she said.

Police attorney Johanna Loraas of the East Police District in Norway confirmed to Newsweek that police had received a complaint about Gjevjon's post and that the matter is under investigation. Those found to be in breach of Section 185 face a fine or up to a year in jail for private remarks, and a maximum of three years in jail for public comments.

Loraas said the police were still determining if the Facebook post "can be considered as hateful (and punishable) or not."

"However, freedom of speech is an essential human right and also protected by law, both by Norwegian law and European Convention on Human Rights," the police attorney said, adding they could not comment any further on the case due to the ongoing investigations.

The police investigation comes after Norway's Supreme Court ruled in September that a man had violated Section 185 when he wrote on Facebook that trans women were "perverted man-pigs who role play that they are little girls," among other comments.

It upheld the 2021 Hordaland District Court's ruling to give the man a 15-day suspended sentence and two years probation, including paying a fine of NOK15,000 ($1,516) and court fees.

Gjevjon told Newsweek that she does not "believe in the concept of gender identity" and started speaking out on the issue following proposed changes to national legislation in 2013.

Eventually passed in 2016, the law was amended to allow people to update their gender on official documents "without requiring a specific diagnosis or medical treatment."

The self-ID laws also allow people over 16 years of age to apply for a change of legal gender themselves. Children aged between 6 and 16 can legally change their gender without medical interventions but must have the permission of at least one of their parents or guardians.

Only general guidelines exist in Norway for gender-affirming medical treatment such as puberty blockers or surgery and they aren't legally binding.

The legal changes sparked a backlash from gender-critical activists, or as Gjevjon described it—it was the moment when "all hell broke loose."

Gender critics believe that sex is biological and not related to gender, and also believe a person can't change the gender they were assigned at birth.

"It's an injustice for lesbians and it's an injustice to force us into the belief that men can be women," she said. "As I see it, they want to demonize women, because women are in the way of their project."

"This legislation has consequences for women," Gjevjon continued, citing access to "safe spaces", sports, access to health care, and freedom of speech as the potential victims of the self-ID laws. She called for any official documentation that records sex to be measured by "biological sex and not gender identity."

Gjevjon is convinced she would have been encouraged to transition as a child because she was such a "tomboy." She accused the trans community of "intimidating" young people who might be questioning their gender.

"When you're young, you're trying to find yourself. It's confusing for young people," said the artist, who admitted she knew she was a lesbian when she was a child.

But no studies support claims that children have been forced to transition, according to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Gjevjon also claimed she had been canceled and lost income for speaking out.

One of the times she made the claim was in an op-ed in the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen and also on the website Feminist Current. She has been interviewed for other international publications about the issue.

"I lost everything," Gjevjon said, estimating she has missed out on somewhere between NOK 200,000 to 400,000 in earnings.

One alleged incident came in 2018 when she was due to perform with Hungry Hearts at the opening of an exhibition at Haugar Art Museum.

Entitled "They - fluid gender," which explored the gender identity discussion, Gjevjon had hoped to perform her new song "Vagina Anthem." Some of the song's lyrics include: "I'm a hateful, ugly Terf," and "we are with women with vaginas and we're here to change the rules."

According to Gjevjon, a week out from opening, the museum informed her she could not perform the song because it could be "potentially offensive" to trans women and as a safety precaution for her and others attending the event, given the provocative lyrics.

The museum said Gjevjon didn't perform on opening night because of a logistical decision made by the curator. Her artwork did, however, remain on display for the duration of the exhibition as planned.

"The case has been looked at by lawyers twice with the same outcome. The museum staff didn't do anything wrong and the artist has not been censored," a museum spokesperson told Newsweek.

Both Sørlie and Jentoft refute her claims that she has been kept from speaking about her beliefs in the public domain.

"There are very few people who have been given more screen time to speak about this issue in Norway," Sørlie said, adding that LGBTQ people are being blamed for the police attention and changes to hate speech law and that this has had "very real consequences on how the entire group is treated."

"We are tainted as a powerful lobby that controls the law and is putting fascist control on freedom of speech."

Norway is considered to be one of the most LGBTQ-friendly places in the world and ranks fifth on Equaldex's world country index. The index scores the legal rights and freedoms LGBTQ people have in a country, while also measuring how the general public feels about them.

Despite that, there has been an increase in violent attacks on LGBTQ people in recent years. LGBTQ people face the second-highest rate of hate crime in Norway, after ethnic minorities, according to ILGA Europe, an international LGBTQ advocacy organization.

The violence came to a head in June when a 43-year-old man went on a deadly shooting rampage at a gay bar on the day of the Oslo Pride parade, killing two people and injuring a further 21.

Zaniar Matapour was charged with terrorist acts, murder, and attempted murder. Two other men were arrested in September for "complicity in a terrorist act" for their alleged link to the mass shooting.

It was these acts of violence and other issues, such as access to healthcare, that needed the attention of the LGBTQ community—not spending time arguing with gender critics.

"I don't think that statement from Tonje should be punishable. I think people should publicly just say 'that's a dumb thing to say,'" Jentoft said. "We are facing bigger struggles with the terrorist attack in Norway this summer. When it comes to queer rights, I feel like we should prioritize differently."

Update 12/23/22, 11:46 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add that the museum also canceled Gjevjon's performance over safety concerns.

Update 01/06/23, 6:48 a.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect that Gjevjon competed to represent Norway at Eurovision.