Fun Fast Facts:
- In 1944, Sweden legalised same-sex activity.
- In 1979, Swedish homosexuals called in sick as a protest to remove homosexuality as an illness.
- Same-sex marriage legal in May 2009 via Constitutional amendment.
- Church of Sweden supports legal marriage.
- Europe’s “most gay-friendly country” according to the ILGA.
LGBT-friendly organisation: Equality Ombudsman
- Government agency that seeks to combat discrimination on grounds of sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age.
- Formed on 1 January 2009 with about 90 members of staff and a government appropriation of SEK 93 million for the year 2009.
- Other duties include raising awareness and disseminating knowledge and information about discrimination and about the prohibitions against discrimination.
W3JOY interviewed: George Sven from the Office of the Discrimination Ombudsmann
The laws were consolidated in the 1990’s. We now have one discrimination act which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in most areas of society–employment, distribution of goods and services, education, and so on.
We’ve had two cases reach the Supreme Court:
One had to do with the burden of proof. It concerned a lesbian couple that were kissing in the restaurant. They were thrown out by the restauranteer…the restauranteer argued that he was treating this couple just like any other couple…what was established was in discrimination cases…is it is for the opposing party to rebut that assumption [of discrimination].
The second, it concerns the level of damages in discrimination cases…legislation was passed to increase the damages awarded in these cases…We have brought a case to the Supreme Court and what we are going to have tested now is ‘What is the proper level of damages in cases of discrimination?’
We have a mandatory obligation on employers to take proactive measures….to take a pay survey ….to compare equal work for equal value.
Every school from kindergarten up to the Universities is obliged every year to make a plan in order to prevent harassment and discrimination and actively work against homophobia in the schools.
W3JOY interviewed: Thomas Johnsonn from West Pride in Goteborg
West Pride is the second-biggest Pride festival in Sweden.
The city has rainbow flags all over the city for two weeks from May 20 to June 2. I think that it’s unique for Sweden…the whole city is colourful–also on the public transporatation, the buses and the trams.
On the homophobic attacks in Greece on former MP Tasso Stafilidis:
It’s always awful when something like this happens. Many people know that Greece is a homophobic country, but here in Sweden, the situation is getting better and better, we feel very surprised and scared when we hear about these happenings.
Here in Sweden I feel very safe, but I know that this could happen in other parts of the world, and even worse things than this,
I get really upset, and it makes me work harder towards change. Because that’s what our festival is about–we want to change the attitude among the people towards the LGBTQ.
Published on: Apr 28, 2013 @ 2:54
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:27 — 29.7MB)