Marit Rensvold

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on March 10, 2025. While care has been taken to maintain accuracy, this translation has not yet undergone human review or validation. Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review.

Marit Rensvold was born in 1935. She joined the board of The Norwegian Association of 1948 (DNF-48) in 1960, serving alongside Dermot Mack, Eva Noreng, and Vigdis Bunkholdt.

Rensvold is a trained psychologist and has a professional background from the Norwegian Rehabilitation Institute and NORAD. In 2010, she was one of the participants in the NRK series Rødt, hvitt og skrått (Red, White, and Queer), where men and women of different ages shared their experiences of growing up as gays and lesbians in Norway.

In the 1950s, a newspaper ad appeared with the text, "Olivia, Stephen is looking for you." For those familiar with the novels Olivia and The Well of Loneliness, the lesbian references were easy to recognize.

Marit Rensvold responded to such an ad. What she encountered was an informal network of lesbian women who had placed the ads to invite more women into their community. Rensvold received addresses and tips about places to visit. In Red, White, and Queer, she recounts how, using these tips as a starting point, she traveled to Paris and experienced a flourishing queer nightlife.

Back in Norway, Rensvold contacted DNF-48. As a board member, she became part of a small but close-knit community that created safe meeting places for queer people, many years before homosexuality was decriminalized.