Jens Andersson

Jens Andersson was a nonbinary person who was born circa 1760 in Gran, Norway as Marie Andersdotter, having been assigned female at birth. (Usually this wiki does not include deadnames of transgender people. In this case, where the person died over a century ago and so cannot be harmed, the deadname is included for scholarship reasons, to make it easier for other researchers to track down more information about this person.) This person moved to Strømsø, Norway, in 1778, presenting as male. In 1781, Andersson married Anne Kristine Mortensdotter in Strømsø church near Drammen. After the wedding, the bride privately told the minister she thought her husband might be a woman. The marriage was annulled. Andersson was accused of sodomy. This was in the general sense of "fornication against nature," which included a wide range of forbidden sexual acts, including those between two women. By law, any form of sodomy would be punished "by fire and flames." Andersson was examined, imprisoned, and interrogated. The case was called a "despicable phenomenon against nature." In the trial, Andersson was asked: "Are you a man or a woman?" It was recorded that the answer was that "Hand troer at kunde henhøre til begge Deele" ("he thinks he may be both," or "he believes he could belong to both genders"). Andersson somehow escaped from prison, so the trial did not reach a verdict. Nothing more is known about this person's life.