Gay Sweden

LGBT History of Sweden

Back in the UK February is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) History month, so I thought I would tell you about the history over here in Sweden, which last year was named the most gay friendly country in Europe. After all this is the country that produced ABBA and loves Eurovision!
In 2006 An EU Member Poll Showed 71% Swedes supported same sex marriage. Also Gays are allowed to serve openly in the military.
So let’s take a step back and fill you in.

1944 Sweden legalised same sexual activities with the age of consent being 18. This at a time when Nazi Germany was persecuting gays (But not lesbians as they were thought to be treatable and women were the ones who could give birth) Compare this to the UK where Homosexuality was illegal until 1967 and then the age of consent was 21. Even with this bill it only allowed for homosexual acts could only take place privately as the bill still maintained prohibitions on buggery.

1972 Saw Sweden become the first country in the world to allow transsexuals to legally change their sex and provided free hormone therapy. This came into effect in the UK in 2004.
However not all was as progressive, although homosexuality was no longer illegal it was still considered an illness until 1979, when a number of people called into work saying they were sick with a “case of homosexuality.” A protest was then launched at the Board of Health and Welfare which led to declassification.

1987 Saw discrimination against homosexuals brought into line with discrimination on the grounds of race and gender. However Transgender identity was de listed as an illness and then added to this discrimination legislation in 2008.




1995 Saw same sex couples being able to register their partnerships. This gave these partners the same legal rights as married couples.

1998 sees the first Stockholm Pride Festival.




May 2009 saw civil partnerships registrations cease as the government passed legislation allowing same sex marriage. This move came about after the Chancellor of Justice proposed that marriage be extended to same sex couples. 2008 saw the legislation go to the Rikstag to be voted on. All parties bar the Christian Democrats were in favour of the bill.

Out of 349 Members
261 Voted in favour
22 Voted No
16 Abstained
50 Absent




October 2009 Saw the Church of Sweden hold its own vote on whether to give homosexual couples its blessing. The Church voted in favour.

Out of 249 Seats
176 Yes
62 No
11 Abstain
0 Absent

Since 2003 same sex couples have had the same rights to adopt as married couples including the right for a single LGBT person to adopt. With regards to inter-country adoption the government holds the view that it is limited on the terms of the country of origin for the child.

Since 2008 the issue of gay blood donation has been under debate. The Board of Health & Welfare proposed that gay men should be eligible to donate blood but only after 6 months of last having sex. From 1sr March 2010 Gay men were supposed to be allowed to give blood after 1 year of abstaining from sex however the blood banks rejected the law which means this issue has been delayed until October 2011.

This timeline shows how far Sweden has come with gay rights and the story is similar all over Scandinavia. In 2009 Iceland elected its first openly gay Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir.

A Dinner Date With Swedish Politics

A few weeks ago I had dinner at City Hall here in Jönköping. There was a small group of us who attended and we met the mayor and other representatives from City Hall.




This got me thinking, I haven’t bored you all with the Politics of Sweden. So I shall write about it now, hopefully this won’t bore you.
The Kingdom of Sweden has a Constitutional Monarch, since 1973 it has been King Carl XVI Gustaf. Since 1975 the monarch has no executive authority. The Government system is similar to that of the UK, headed by the Prime Minister and their Cabinet. The Government sits in the Riksdag with the legislative assembly.




The General Election of 2010

In Sweden they have fixed terms, every 4 years on the third Sunday in September an election is called for the Seats in the Riksdag, 20 County Councils and 290 Municipal assemblies.
To vote you must be 18, Swedish Citizen and at some point have been living in Sweden.
Now this is where it gets a bit messy. There are a choice of 3 ballot papers in the general election. 1) you can hand in a ballot paper with your preferred party, 2) You hand in a ballot with the chosen party and then you can mark your preference of candidate and 3) You are given a blank ballot and you write the party you wish to vote for. The allocation of seats is done on a proportional system meaning that a party that gets 25% of the vote should get around 25% of seats. The candidates are then chosen on 2 criteria, their party ranking and then the preference votes from the electorates. A candidate that gets 8% + preference votes goes to the top of the list, This happens in around 5% of cases.
The Riksdag has 349 seats, 310 are given to elected members with the remaining 39 used as ‘adjustment seats’ ensuring the number of seats matches the number of votes.

Are you still with me?

Well I may lose you now!

In the 2010 election there were 7 major parties which have formed their own alliances prior to the election!
The Governing Centre right alliance called Alliance for Sweden is made up of
Nya Moderata (Moderate Party) Lead by PM Fredrik Reinfeldt
Folkpartiet Liberalerna (Liberal People’s Party)
Centrepartiet (The Centre Party)
Kristdemokraterna (The Christian Democrats)

The Opposition alliance called The Red Green Alliance is made up of
Sveriges Socialdemokratiska (Sweden’s Social Democrats)
Miljöpartiet de Gröna (Green Party)
Vänsterpartiet (The Left Party, {formerly communist})

Things to note:
The social democrats, though in opposition are the largest political party in Sweden. This party has only been out of power from 1976-82, 1991-93 and 2006-Present. This party can boast the longest serving PM from 1947-69 PM Tage Erlander at the time of the 2010 election it was lead by Mona Sahlin however since the defeat she has announced her intentions to resign as party leader.

The New Moderates are the second largest party and under Reinfeldt the Right wing party have moved towards the centre ground. He is the first centre right PM to have won 2 terms since WWII

The left party are a socialist/feminist party. Ironically since adopting this feminist stance under Gudrun Schyman the party hasn’t had a female leader since 2003 when she stood down.

2010 Election Results





The Sverigedemokraterna (Swedish Democrats)problem.
This party is the Nationalist Party, thinking similar thoughts to the BNP, the country has too high an immigration intake threatening national identity and wants to return refugees to their home states etc. They don’t like the ‘special privileges’ the indigenous Sami people have, and wants to abolish the Sami Parliament. The party claim they are not hostile to homosexuals but they have a strong belief in the ‘nuclear family’ and oppose the rights for homosexuals to have children.

Why are they a problem?
(Apart from the reasons mentioned above!)

Well for the first time they have managed to win Parliamentary seats, 20 of them from a 5.7% vote, more than the left party. This meant that none of the two alliances could form a majority government and with the Alliance for Sweden holding power with a minority government the Swedish Democrats now hold the balance of power. Both alliances have said they will not work with the SDs. This then lead to protests including in Jönköping. Swedes say two things you don’t talk about in Sweden are Politics and Religion, so to see demonstrations of this kind is rare and holds a huge point.

January: Round 2 Begins

I’m now into my 3rd week of semester 2 and it’s about time I caught you guys up.
Well Kick off week was shall we say quieter than the one in Semester 1. It was split into two as not all the schools were back at the same time. So week one was the turn of JIBS and the Engineers school. The first night was ‘the winter games’ Let’s be honest game. We separated into teams and had a relay race, running up a snow covered mound and then tobogganing back down. Was fun however I got myself a fair few scratches, the ‘toboggan’ was a small plastic dish type thing with a handle attached to it, so very easy to fall off. With it being dark it was quite hard to see people’s faces clearly in order to remember them. After that event we went back to delta had a few drinks then hit a bar after, good fun with people on the first floor of Delta. Day 2 was the bar crawl This was rather enjoyable, meeting new people, though I did struggle to remember names but was very good at remembering where people had come from . The bar crawl was 3 bars, (Something to note not a lot of bars in the city!) but still a good night to be had. Thursday night was the welcome party at O’learys (Aka was shut this week) this is where I got my first taste of living in the city. Being able to stay at the bars until closing and then the after-parties

There aren’t as many students on exchange this time round. About 200 in JIBS with a majority from France and Canada. I am now living in the city centre in Delta House. A block of flats above one of the night clubs here. There are 12 of us to a flat and 5 flats, so a fair few of us. I have got myself acquainted with my flatmates and the guys on the first floor. I live with people who were here last semester. The guys on the first floor are all new. 2 Americans, 2 Australians, fair few French. Can’t remember others.




Anyway other things that are happening: The trip to Kiruna goes on sale on the 1st of February So I shall be up early for that to get a seat. Only £469!!! Then I have an evening Buffet at City Hall with the Mayor and local Politicians. That’s at the beginning of next month.
This month Sweden is host to the Men’s World Championship of Handball and some of the matches are being played here in Jönköping. Now I haven’t really heard of Handball before but luckily the UK has not entered a team so I am loyally supporting the home nation!
Not a very exciting blog update but I’m sure more exciting stuff will arise.