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A letter from Faroe islands
Our friends from Färöar wrote:
15. December 2006 was a landmark in the Faroes – Finally the parliament decided to include sexual orientation into the act of anti-discrimination in the Faroese criminal code – it has been a long and bumpy road which has divided the nation.
Homosexuals are still in the media being blamed for AIDS and other horrendus totally irrational stuff, but time is on our side and there is a renewed optimism amongst liberals in the faroes.
This is not only a fight about homosexuality – the whole debate has sparked a wide and deep debate in society about values – Is the faroes a modern Western democracy or is it a theocracy?
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To include sexual orientation in the penal code is the first recognition that there the faroes society is diverse and people have another sexuality than heterosexuality-
First I want to give a short historical introduction and then I’ll return to the present day situation in the Faroes:
LGBT issues have never been talked about in the Faroes – there has just been an assumption that no one is gay- hence no need to talk about it let alone to make the Faroese society inclusive for LGBT people!
When homosexuality was decriminalized in Denmark in 1933, the same law was automatically put in force in the Faroes, and the higher age of consent for homosexual relations that the Danish Penal Code prescribed also became Faroese law. Section 225 in the new Penal Code stated that all sexual crimes in previous sections were also punishable if committed between persons of the same sex, and its second subsection (section 225.2) set the age limit at 18 for homosexual intercourse. Thus, women were for the first time included in the anti-homosexuality legislation, but no women was ever prosecuted for homosexual crimes in the Faroes.
From 1948, amendments to the Danish Criminal law were no longer automatically valid in the Faroes, but the Løgting was granted the right to decide whether to put them in force. On many issues the faroese and danish law therefore differ.
The Faroes have quite a conservative stance on many issues – hence abortion is banned – pornografy is banned – registered partnership and a bunch of lgbt rights have not happened in the Faroes yet.
Still there are two important laws being passed the last 20 years – in 1988 the age of consent was lowered for lgbt people to be the same as for heterosexual people and last December it was banned to discriminate because of sexual orientation.
ANSO has in many ways created history in the Faroes. It was the ANSO conference in August 2005 which sparked the extremely hard debate in the media about homosexuality – both before, during and after the conference – priests, politicians, a conservative christian right movement, even a governmental minister all spoke out – and there were a lot of harsh words written.
- ”Spreading the semen of satan”
- ”Homosexuals should be blamed for aids and other plagues”
- ”god will punish the faroes if we give them any rights…”
- ”homosexuals are perverted”
- ”homosexuality is the same as pedofily”
- ”homosexuality is unnatural and a sin which should not be tolerated – we shall love the sinner but hate the sin…”
- ”homosexuals should not be allowed to work in kindergardens or schools – the children might think that homosexuality is natural and something the society accepts…”
But there was also a lot of individuals and politicians coming out and supporting Friðarbogin and the ANSO conference and demanding legal protection and other things for lgbt people.
After having viewed the harsh debate in society 2 parlamentarians raised the issue in the parliament – løgtingið – a proposal was put forward to include ”sexual orientation” in the penal code – but it fell at the second reading in December 2005 by 20 against and 12 for.
An academic in the Faroes has described the debate in the parliament. She states that the presentation of homosexuality in the parliament is characterized by prejudices and a negative view of homosexuality. This is frustrating Faroese homosexuals a lot who feel hurt by the harsh statements that are put forward by members of parliament.
Nevertheless, the experience is also rather ambivalent. The reason for this is, that a result of the debate is that homosexuality is no longer tabooed and therefore to some extent the Faroe Islands have become a better and more tolerant place for lgbt people to live in.
The worst thing is the silence – there has been enough silence around the issue –
After the proposal fell in parliament in 2005 there was a short following debate where a priest and thereafter a politician in parliament stated the he did not want lgbt people working in his school or kindergarden – this is a very influential social democratic politician who is the mayor of a small city and he is chairing the board who is hiring people for the school and kindergarden.
This politician could say this without there being any sanctions imposed upon him.
A few gay people in the faroes stood up – but most just continued fleeing the country – how many sexual refugees there are – no one knows – but a lot of faroes lgbt people say they have no home country -
Things really changed in the Faroes in septmber last year when a young gay musician was brutally beaten up because he was gay. The issue of protecting people because of sexual orientation was raised in parliament for a third time -
This time things were different – the outside world followed the case closely – There was for instance a series of articles in the Danish newspaper politikken – ANSO did lobby work – there were documentary in both tv DR, TV2 and radio in Denmark and other scandinavian countries – A young girl started collecting signatures and the issue was moreover raised in the Nordic Coucil.
After 2 long debates in parliament the there was a vote whether to include sexual orientation in the penal code – it was tight – very tight – but we won -
Without the help of ANSO this issue would probably not have reached as far. ANSO can also pride itself of having created the first pride march in the Faroes ever – in August 2005 -
In the Faroes we are looking forward to welcoming ANSO for another conference in August 2007 – and I am truly sorry that I could not participate in Bergen – work is preventing me from being at this great conference.