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They toughened gender norms

Although we feel that we have come a long way in Norway, it is dangerous to sit back and think that the homolobby has played its part. 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

As the leader of Skeiv Ungdom, I am part of the so-called "organized homolobby", designated by right-wing radical forces in Norway associated with a Northern European community. It was the Norwegian part of this community – including the Nazi group The Nordic Resistance Movement – that campaigned against Skeive Sørlandsdags in August 2016, by taking down and burning up the gay flags that were hung for the occasion. Antihomo posters were also hung in the center of Kristiansand. These people also have a stated goal to carry out a larger campaign against one of the pride celebrations in Norway next year.

Gay Youth is a gay lobbyist for a society where everyone has equal legal rights and opportunities. We are gay lobbies for both you and your neighbor to have these rights, completely independent of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientering. We will continue to homolob as long as necessary. For it is needed.

Resistance lives. In recent years, rights work in Norway has come a long way towards achieving satisfactory legal rights for those of us who violate the norms for sexual orientering and gender identity. In 2016, Parliament has passed a law allowing for change legal status without having to do surgery, irreversible intervention on the body. Synod has this year opened up to same-gender marriage in the Norwegian Church.

Norwegian rights work is not isolated from what is happening in the rest of the world. The opposition to this work and the progress it entails does not arise in a vacuum. Russia is one of today's many examples of horror of how family conservative forces can lead to stricter legislation directly aimed at people who violate sexual norms orientering and gender.

Wrong way. As recently as in 2011, there was no legislation against so-called homopropaganda in Russia. It does now. The legislation means that all positive publicity and expression of like-minded love towards young people under 18 years is illegal. It has a number of consequences for many individuals.

Lesbian mothers break the law by being open about their love for each other at home in front of their own children. Men holding hands in the street are beaten down without anyone breaking in. Some landlords withdraw from signed agreements if they find that the tenant is divorced. Central politicians are open to the belief that gays belong in prison. They are not contradicted.

Skeiv Ungdom's Russian partners fear that the next step is the criminalization of norm-breaking sexual orientering and gender identity. That fear is highly justified, given the developments of recent years. Such legislation is spreading alarmingly fast to ever new countries. Despite the fact that we have come a long way in Norway in terms of legal rights for queers, it is not a given that it lasts. The political wind can turn – and that before we are even at the finish line.

"Gay" is still one of the most commonly used slander words in Norwegian schools. Young people are still dreading coming out of the closet, as we have seen among other things on NRK's ​​series Out of the closet in autumn. Still, some people experience losing all contact with close family and close friends because they are who they are. Because they break our standards of gender and sexuality.

More fragile than many think. Laws are not static, but constantly changing. The same goes for norms and attitudes. Movements that originate in family conservative and partially fascist environments are getting a foothold in several places in the Nordic countries. It should be a reminder that the battle for the rights of skeeve is not over. Attitudes towards slices can change quickly. Much indicates that the attitudes in some circles are already changing – in the negative direction.

The so-called homolobby has not played its part in Norway. The homolobby, on the other hand, is necessary, today and in the future. Both to ensure that the rights of divorces are safeguarded, and to constantly challenge harmful attitudes in society.

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