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Antigypsyist homophobia and LGBTI Roma rights in the Nordics

Even though the Nordic countries are at the forefront of LGBTI rights in Europe and globally, LGBTI Roma are subject to a complex web of intersectional discrimination and marginalization. Little or no research has been carried out on this group in the Nordics, neither are we aware of any specific programmes or activities to support them. This project was a first step towards putting Roma LGBTI communities on the agenda in the Nordics. The project aimed to provide information about Romani LGBTI minorities in the Nordics and the intersectional discrimination they face, including antigypsyist homophobia. The outcome of the project was a publication with a series of public book launches/seminars in three Nordic capitals (Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo). The publication wanted to bring the voices of Roma LGBTI persons and Roma activists promoting LGBTI rights to the forefront.

The project wanted to provide an overview of good practices from other European countries where Roma LGBTI rights movements have grown and visibilized the challenges that these communities face. The aim of the publication was to equip organisations, institutions and stakeholders with relevant knowledge and tools that will raise public awareness about specific forms of discrimination that Roma LGBTI people face in order to create an accepting environment that values diversity within LGBTI and Roma communities; to combat antigypsyist homophobia; and to support Roma LGBTI persons in pursuing their struggle for equality in Nordic societies. The book launches will bring together relevant stakeholders to ensure that the knowledge is communicated to places where it is needed.

Read more about the book “Queera romer och resande” here (in Swedish)

Nordic Futures: QTIBIPoC Movement Based Learning

This project was built on a collaboration between five organizations within the Nordic region that have been involved in the growing QTIBIPoC movement. The project’s purpose was to collaboratively create a practical handbook in partnership with QTIBIPOCs – a resource designed by and for the community. This handbook will partly serve as a transformative intervention for Nordic organizations, welfare systems, schools, and other institutions that engage with QTIBIPOCs. We also wanted the handbook to serve as a resource for QTIBIPOC organizing and create opportunities for cross-border coalitions.

The handbook introduces readers to an intersectional understanding of systems of oppression and power, and develop a contextual and historical analysis of the Nordic region. Most importantly, the handbook will draw its strength from real-life experiences, activist strategies, organizational skills, and movement expertise from across the region.

Read more and download the “Rivers in Resistance” handbook here.

QTIBIPoC stands for Queer, Trans*, Inter* and Black, Indigenous, People of Colour.

Nordic network for queer history archives and activities

The aim of this project was to create a network of queer history archives and activities in the Nordic and Baltic countries and to promote the sharing of experience and knowledge and to explore opportunities for partnership, infrastructure solutions, and financial conditions. The network’s partners in Sweden, Finland and Norway have different competences and used those to conduct their individual seminar days and network gatherings. The seminars invited queer archives, researchers, cultural heritage professionals and artists from the Nordic and Baltic countries to share experience and knowledge, for development and for partnerships. The network challenged previous marginalising historiography in the Nordic countries, broadened interest in queer history in the Nordic and Baltic countries, and contributed to a more inclusive view of history. The work to change this was communicated through an open digital platform where activities and discussions was documented and made accessible, and included links to the different LHBTQ archives and history activities.

Read more about the network here.

Enhancing Nordic LGBTI organisations capacities amidst an international backlash against LGBTI rights 

The background to the project was the need for closer Nordic co-operation between organisations working for LGBTI rights. Although the organisation and situation in the countries are somewhat different, we all experience that the LGBTI population has poorer living conditions and greater challenges than the majority population, and that trends in the world and Europe mean that we must continue to work for equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender and sexuality. ILGA Europe’s rainbow map shows stagnation and decline. The largest LGBTI organisations in the Nordic region therefore joined forces to organise a conference that brought together staff and activists from across the Nordic region in Oslo on the weekend of 20-22 May 2022.

A total of 100 queer activists and staff from queer organisations gathered in Oslo to discuss and learn about a range of topics that affect queer lives. Participants represented Finland, Åland, Sweden, Sápmi, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

The conference was followed up with a two-hour webinar on 12 December on the topic of the living conditions of queer seniors in a life course perspective in the Nordic countries, hosted by the Norwegian-Swedish research duo Janne Bromseth and Anna Siverskog. There were 30 participants from Finland, Åland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

The conference also saw the establishment of a Nordic LGBTI council consisting of small and large LGBTI organisations in the Nordic Region. SETA, Samtökin ’78, RFSL, LGBT+ Denmark and FRI had the main responsibility for the conference and invited organisations from their respective countries and autonomous regions.

The formalisation of a Nordic LGBTI council and network will enable the exchange of experience and knowledge on how best to strengthen efforts on a more permanent basis.

Network gathering for experience exchange among queers in Sápmi 

Through the project, a network gathering for experience exchange and organizational development among queers in Sápmi was organised. The goal was to strengthen the queer Sami organization and, in that way, creating more and better meeting places for the whole of Sápmi. In the long run, more meeting places and a stronger queer Sami organization will contribute to more openness and knowledge, both among queer Sami, but also among the general population. 

The network gathering gathered participants from the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian sides, and had two main purposes: 

  • To gather and exchange experiences among queer communities across Sápmi, and talk about the way forward for the queer Sámi organization, as well as to plan future meeting places 
  • Organizational development through getting to know the organizational processes from the various parts of Sápmi and skills development in practical-organizational work 

Feminist and queer solidarities beyond borders

This project established a cross-national network to develop analytic and strategical tools to combat inequalities on the rise in the Nordic region, Russia and Turkey.

The project had two goals:

1) to establish a cross-national and cross-professional network of academics and activists who work on women’s and LGBT-rights in three geographical contexts: the Nordic countries, Russia and Turkey;

2) to develop novel analytic and strategic tools to use in the struggle against gendered, sexualized, ethnicized and racialized inequalities that currently are on the rise in the Nordic region and beyond.

The project deepened and nuanced our understandings of the particularities that characterize the struggles for gender equality in various contexts. It gathered crucial insights into how activists and researchers in these varied locations challenge anti-gender and homophobic policies in times of political backlash against democracy and the rise of the far-right. The project resulted in novel tools that are urgently needed in contemporary struggles against expressions of violence, hatred and inequalities in an increasingly transnational world.

Transforming Identities: Exploring changes, tensions and visions in the Nordic region through the prism of identity politics

Transforming Identities brought together scholars, activists, artists and authors to discuss current challenges to democratic participation and shifting understandings of diversity, minorities, and solidarity. At a time when minorities, broadly defined, are increasingly positioned as threats to majority rights and democratic values, the project explore how and to what ends minority mobilization challenges Nordic social and political landscapes – what’s at stake, why, and for whom?

In three workshops (in Stavanger, Gothenburg and Helsinki) the project explored the impulses for new understandings of equality and rights, solidarity, marginalization and democracy, in the context of the rise of rightwing activism, growing nationalism, local and global insecurities. The project aimed to facilitate collaborations and thinking across disciplines and platforms, expand understandings of how democratic participation transforms the social and the political, and to establish lasting avenues for debate, insights, and new research.

Updated 6 April 2022