Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 20:41 GMT+0200 From: Lewis Taylor Subject: News from Swedish Gay/Lesbian Politics, No.6,1994 News from Swedish gay/lesbian politics Published by the Swedish Federation for Gay and Lesbian Rights (RFSL), P.O.Box 350, S-101 26 STOCKHOLM. Phone +46-8-736 02 13. Fax +46-8-30 47 30. No. 6/94 (February 7th-13th, 1994) 1 The dates for the partnership work in the Parliament The following dates are important for the passage of the partnership law through the parliament. March 15th. Deadline for submission of formal remarks concerning the report of the Partnership Commission. March 24th. The Standing Committee on Civil-Law Legislation starts its consideration of the partnership motions and submits proposed legislation to the Council on Legislation. May 26th. The Standing Committee on Civil-Law Legislation approves its report. June 3rd. The report of the Standing Committee on Civil-Law Legislation is announced in the Parliament. June 7th. Debate and voting in the Parliament. 2 Quote of the week from the Christian Democratic Party This week we quote an article by Ulla-Britt Hagstroem, chairperson of the Christian Democratic Party (kds) in Skaraborg County. It was published in the Christian daily Dagen on February 10th: "Respecting other forms of cohabitation does not mean that the society through its legislation has to try to change the norms. The society should - in contrast to the proposal from the Partnership Commission - not try to create the new norm that people with the society's blessing should be able to live completely according to their own wishes and personalities. This is a very serious position, since such cohabitation forms, protected by the society, also allow young people, who try these forms out of curiosity, to be influenced to a continuous homosexual relationship. "This absurd debate makes sisters, female friends, brothers, male pals, who have chosen for practical reasons to share households, feel disturbed by the debate and find it unpleasant to live together on other grounds than that of the marriage, therefore move apart. Nobody has, for decades, questioned for example the cohabitation of sisters and brothers, which is common in the countryside. There it has been said to be necessary with a partner legislation. Today they have undeservedly come into problems. This natural cohabitation is questioned by today's debate. "The Commission wants a change of attitudes that in the future will facilitate steady and lengthy relationships for homosexuals. I claim that such a change of attitudes will unnecessarily transfer young people with heterosexual predisposition to homosexual relationships. The same suffering and insecurity that many homosexuals today claim they have would then strike the heterosexual person that have gone wrong because of changed attitudes. This is not the task of the society. The task of the society is to support everybody's equal and unique value. There is no reason to work for changed attitudes that contradict the biological order. This is not, in my opinion, about trying to convert the homosexual back to heterosexuality, but rather about not increasing the homosexual group by attracting heterosexuals with the support of society. "With the proposed law change to "A person who is married or a partner is not allowed to enter a new marriage", a person who has come wrong is stopped from quickly participating in a heterosexual relationship." 3 Meeting about the school plans On February 10th, the RFSL called on the Ministry of Education and Science together with a number of organizations that also work with sex issues. The organizations wanted to assure that sex education and education about homosexuality are addressed in a sensitive way in the school plans that soon are to be approved by the Government (see News from Swedish gay/lesbian politics 5/93, 15/33, 33/93 and 43/93). The periodic publications of RFSL Kom Ut (in Swedish): 6 issues a year. Subscription 150 SEK a year. Fakta fraan RFSL (in Swedish): Approximately ten fact sheets that are updated regularly. Subscription 200 SEK per ten mailings. News from Swedish gay/lesbian politics (in Swedish and English): 52 issues a year. Subscription 180 SEK a year or 30 international reply coupons. Hivbladet (in Swedish): 12 issues a year. Free of charge. Membership in the RFSL: 160-250 SEK a year, depending on which local branch is chosen. Includes subscription of Kom Ut.