the day in sweden

IDAHO 2005

Sweden already joined fort he International Day Against Homophobia in 2005 – organised by both, RFSL (Riksförbund för sexuellt likaberättigande) and RFSL Ungdom (their youth organisation). The motto of the manifestations in Stockholm and Malmö was „Stop killing us!“

The biggest manifestation was in the centre of Stockholm. Members from all political parties and the Minister of Justice participated. In total 1000 people were counted in both cities.

Maris Sergejenko

IDAHO 2006

Theme in the last year was: „Enough is enough!“ Main initiator was RFSL Ungdom’s local branch in Malmö. So the same speech was held in Jönköping, Malmö and Stockholm at the same time and got high media attention. Main content of it was the wish to not only be accepted, but mainly respected in being whether lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

17 cities in Sweden were organising demonstrations, lectures and information markets at school, universities or libraries. In Jönköping there even was a theatre play and in Malmö the journalist Facundo Unia was discussing with his guests about hate-crimes. Another actions was the spreading of information leaflets about homophobia at schools. 

Chris Jonasson

IDAHO 2007

The third International Day Against Homophobia will bring a lot of action to Sweden. This year, our aim is that 20 cities will bring up the theme of homophobia. The national theme of the day is “Everyone’s affected – by homophobia, by xenophobia - and by respect. What do you choose?”

In Stockholm there will be seminars and workshops all day long, with the main event at the Sergel square at 2 p.m. There will be speakers from RFSL Ungdom, RFSL and the Federation for LGBT students in Sweden, as well as from many different political parties. One of the speakers will be Mona Sahlin, the president of the Social democrats.   

The local programs are not set at this moment, so check out www.rfslungdom.se for more information.

Felix König