Finnish Lutheran minister

Marja-Sisko Aalto (born July 29, 1954) is a Finnish writer of detective fiction and former minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She was the vicar of the Imatra parish from 1986 to 2010. She became notable as Finland's first openly transgender minister. In 2009, the Finnish Women's *ociation named Aalto Lyyti of the Year:. Since her resignation as vicar, she has pursued a career as a writer.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Clerical career
• 3 Writing career
• 4 Personal life
• 5 Works
• 6 References
• 7 Further reading
• 8 External links

Early life and education

Alto was born Olli-Veikko Aalto on July 29, 1954 in Lappeenranta as the seventh of eight children, and was *igned male at birth. She entered the faculty of theology at the University of Helsinki in 1973.

Clerical career

Aalto was the vicar of the Imatra parish from 1986 to 2010.

In November 2008, Aalto came out as trans woman and announced her intent to have sex re*ignment surgery. According to Aalto, her parents had decided to give her the name Marja-Sisko if she had been born a girl, as they had hoped. She was preoccupied with the issue of gender from the age of three. Although her parents had wanted a girl, they did not accept her gender iden*y. For example, they were angry when Aalto, as a child, asked why she could not wear a skirt when all the other girls did.

Aalto's coming out as a trans woman caused a great controversy in the Church. The bishop of Mikkeli, Voitto Huotari, commented that there is no juridical obstacle for Aalto continuing as a vicar, but predicted that there would be problems. In 2009, almost 600 members left the Imatra parish. In November 2009, Aalto returned to the job of vicar after spending a year on leave. In March 2010, she requested to be allowed to resign, due in part to the discrimination she faced.

She was elected the notary of diocese for Kuopio by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 2010.

Writing career

Since her resignation as vicar, Aalto has pursued a career as a writer of detective fiction. Aalto's first detective novel, Murder in the Cemetery, was published in Autumn 2013. Her second novel, Deadly Snow was published on National Veterans' Day (Finland) on April 27, 2015. The work is dedicated to the veterans of the Lapland War and continues the story of the protagonist of the previous book.

Personal life

Aalto has been married twice, and has three children.

Works

• Murha tuomiokapitulissa (in Finnish). Icasos. 2013. ISBN:978-9526789620.
• Tappavaa lunta (in Finnish). Icasos. 2015. ISBN:978-9526789644.
• Ikoni (in Finnish). Icasos. 2016. ISBN:978-9526789675.
• Korppi (in Finnish). Icasos. 2018. ISBN:978-9526878027.
• Timantti (in Finnish). Icasos. 2019. ISBN:978-9526878034.
• Maan nielemät (in Finnish). 2020. ISBN:978-9526878089.
• Veri (in Finnish). 2021. ISBN:978-9527412039.

References

Further reading

• Huttunen, A. (2018). "First encounters with gender minority related information: results of an Internet survey". Informaatiotutkimus. 37 (3): 43–46. Retrieved 2022-03-02.

External links

• Official blog
• Marja-Sisko Aalto at IMDb

Concepts

• Ergi
• Nīþ

Organizations and events

• *ociation of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations

Other

• Qruiser
• Ecce *

• Category