User:Maddy from Celeste/Panda Eriksson

Panda Eriksson (born 1 March 1991) is a Finnish nonbinary transgender activist. They were member of the board of directors of transgender organization Trasek from 2014 to 2020, including two years as chairperson, and founder and chair of Trans ry between 2020 and 2021.

Eriksson is a Finland-Swede, and grew up in Kimitoön before moving to Turku. They hold a bachelor's degree in cell biology and a master's in gender studies from Åbo Akademi University. In 2019, they began studying to be a nurse.

Having served as chairperson of Trasek for two years, Eriksson resigned from the position in 2020, and founded Trans ry shortly after. During their tenure with Trans ry, the organization started the Oikeus olla ("Right to be") initiative in Finland, aiming to reform the Finnish legislation on change of gender marker. The initiative reached the 50,000 signatures required to be considered by Parliament the day after it started on 6 April 2021. On 24 September 2022, they and Valo Vesikauris, who succeeded Eriksson as chair of Trans ry, formally delivered the initiative to the Finnish Parliament.

In January 2022, Eriksson was elected to the county council of the wellbeing services county of Southwest Finland. In April they told Helsingin Uutiset that activism had become a lesser part of their life as they wanted to only' be a nurse for a moment".