The good…
Gay Santa ad highlights big shift in Norwegian society https://t.co/hwYlRO0601
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 23, 2021
… “We wanted to celebrate the 50-year anniversary since the abolition of a law prohibiting same-sex relationships,” says Monica Solberg, Posten’s marketing director. The ad has been watched well over two million times online.
“The magnitude of response took us a bit by surprise. We expected a reaction, but not to such an extent.” …
Until 1972 homosexuality in Norway was a criminal offence and changes in attitudes have taken time. Norwegians may now shrug their shoulders at an ad showing Santa kissing another man, but had it not been for one activist in particular things might have been different.
Kim Friele has been credited with relentlessly campaigning for the changes first to the same-sex law in 1972 and then to Norway’s partnership law that allowed same-sex marriage 21 years later.
Such was Friele’s national importance that when she died aged 86 last month, she was given a state funeral attended by members of Norway’s royal family.
Friele had once told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK how until the 1960s same-sex couples had to meet in secret underground clubs and how they were judged by society.
She reacted by giving lectures in schools and universities, appearing in the media and becoming a recognisable face during public debates…
During her campaign, Friele met conservative parliamentarian Wenche Lowzow, who would go on to become the love of her life.
While the couple were eventually able to tie the knot in Norway’s first same-sex civil partnership, their relationship cost Lowzow her political career.
Few members of Norwegian society are afforded a state funeral, but hers was held in Oslo’s cathedral and broadcast live on national TV.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store spoke at the service of “a warm, friendly, brave and powerful human who changed history”…
The funny…
— Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens (@CSMFHT) December 20, 2021