Sweden Gets First Trans Minister – Lina Axelsson Kihlblom

Sweden made history, when the country’s first female Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson recently named 51-year-old Lina Axelsson Kihlblom as the country’s new Schools Minister. Kihblom is the first transgender government minister in not only Sweden but all of Scandinavia.

“This is a huge and exciting task and I’m ready to take it on,” Kihblom said at a press conference on last week.

Before her entry into politics, Kihlblom was known for achieving a great deal of success through her work as a principal.

Especially notable was her three year employment at Ronnaskolan, a Swedish elementary school known for struggling with disadvantaged students. During her time  here, Kihlblom raised the school’s so-called high school eligibility rate from 55 percent to 75 percent. 

Coming Out As Trans

Kihlblom’s coming out journey began with a doctor’s visit when she was 19. She was by law forced to undergo a mandatory sterilisation when she underwent gender affirmation surgery in 1995.

“I went through a surgery where the state made sure that none of my unique genes would ever be reproduced. I remember there were tears but I did not know if it was tears of pain or because I was so enormously humiliated”, she had told Swedish Expressen.

In 2007 and 2008 she adopted her two kids with ex-husband Roger Kihlblom.

The former school principal and lawyer published a book in 2015 titled “Will You Love Me Now?” describing her childhood as a girl trapped in a boy’s body. The following year, the book won the “Book of the Year” award at Sweden’s Gaygala.

New Government Of Several “Firsts”

A transgender minister is not the only first that the new regime added to the history books. 

After former prime minister Stefan Löfven lost a confidence vote in parliament in June, Swedish lawmakers appointed Magdalena Andersson as the new leader of the country – a move that makes her Sweden’s first female prime minister. 

“Sweden is a fantastic country. There is a lot to be proud of about Sweden. But it is also clear to me that we are facing several serious issues. Now, I am ready to lead a government that takes the necessary measures to solve Sweden’s issues,” the Prime Minister wrote in an Instagram post.

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