Interrogating the Scandinavian LGBT+ Movement: Transnational Perspectives, 1948–70

Friday, January 7, 2022: 8:50 AM
Grand Ballroom B (Sheraton New Orleans)
Peter Edelberg, Copenhagen University
I will present my investigation of the Scandinavian LGBT+ Movements from the beginning of organized homosexuals in Scandinavia up until 1970. In Scandinavia, homophiles organized from 1948 onwards, and made ties to similar groups in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The Scandinavian organizations have left extensive archives, allowing us to trace the construction of such movements and recognize the importance of transnational inspiration, cooperation, and conflict. Rather than understanding each national movement as a separate entity, I argue that we need to imagine how transnational bonds and cooperation shaped the European homosexual movement.

The organizations had a complicated relationship with the homophile magazines. Many felt that the magazines were too pornographic and would endanger the struggle for equal rights. However, the organizations needed the magazines to communicate with and animate their base. Furthermore, I will present my investigation into the nature of the homosexual movement in Scandinavia along two main lines: How did the movements handle diversity within? Which groups, such as women, transvestites, transsexuals, ethnic minorities, pedophiles, etc., were problematized or absent from the debates? How were questions of inclusion and exclusion discussed in the movements long before they evolved into the LGBT+ movements they claim to be today?

The other line of investigation deals with the cooperation with authorities. When did the authorities start to listen to the homosexual organizations? And, importantly, what were the explicit and implicit premises for that conversation? My hypothesis is that the Scandinavian governments and politicians accepted homosexuals as a conversation partner, and a group deserving respect and rights before Stonewall, and that this and other concepts and periodizations emanating from the U.S. need to be reworked in order to be used for understanding Scandinavian, or by extension European, LGBT+ history.