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OSLO,
13/08/2010 (Texto, fotos y video © LIOWLB / AVS / Enkidu Magazine): Ayer, día
del cumpleaños de Agustín, en punto de las 10 de la madrugada acudimos a una
de las organizaciones de la diversidad-sexo-genérica más importantes de
Noruega: LLH – Landsforeningen for
lesbisk og homofil frigjøring (Norwegian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
organization), cuya Presidenta, Karen Pinholt, conversó en exclusiva para tí,
amig@ de Enkidu Magazine. Antecedentes: Acorde
con el sitio Web de LLH (www.llh.no) el grupo trabaja ”por la
igualdad y contra todas las formas de discriminación contra personas gays,
lesbianas, bisexuales y transgénero (GLBT) en Noruega y el mundo.” De hecho,
trabajan en contacto directo con las autoridades y los politicos del país,
así como con las poblaciones GLBT, al tiempo que apoyan a los medios de
comunicación masiva a fin de dar a conocer información real, investigaciones
científicas y actividades que desarrollan en cuestiones de negociaciones de
lobby, salud, educación, VIH-SIDA, entre otras. Un espacio donde la
comunicación y el encuentro son brindados de manera segura en atención a las
necesidades de quienes acuden a ellos. Entre sus actividades hay desde cafés,
redes de padres, actividades deportivas, fiestas, etc. Con más
de 2 mil miembros por todo el país, LLH tiene por objetivo ayudar a personas
que tengan problemas relacionados con su orientación sexual o su identidad de
género, además de apoyar actividades encabezadas por y para jóvenes (pero
ese… es otro artículo). En este
sentido, decidimos iniciar nuestra conversación con LLH preguntando a Karen
Pinholt cuál es la situación alrededor del matrimonio para personas del mismo
sexo en Noruega. La entrevista fue realizada en idioma inglés y por eso te
presentamos la transcripción, la traducción y el video original. Amig@
lector@, tendremos una segunda conversación con Karen por lo que te invitamos
a que cualquier duda, pregunta, sugerencia o comentario relacionado con el
activismo GLBT o sobre la situación de las personas de la Diversidad
Sexo-Genérica en Noruega o las estrategias, planes y proyectos o cualquier
duda que tengas nos la hagas llegar a la brevedad a info@enkidumagazine.com Favor de indicar tu nombre completo, el cual
NO sera publicado, sino que publicaremos tus iniciales y tu pregunta. Karen
Pinholt, Presidenta LLH: I am Karen Pinholt and I am the President of LLH,
which is the National GLBT Organization in Norway and it will be nice to talk
to you about marriage laws and same sex couples recognition and the history
of Norway. We were among the first countries introducing same sex
recognition, in 1993, what we called the Partnership Law. Norway is
a Christian, Protestant country. The church has a lot of influence, also in
politics, but it is also a divided country on values. Some of the major
parties, the Labor Party among them and the main left side of politics that
were on our side, but even within those parties we had to have a long process
of lobbing, For the
partnership law we had a very good and well functioning lobbying group that
basically taught one on one each, all the members of the Parliament, pretty
much, at least all the ones that could swing the vote. That
lobby process which took time, years, was successful after a year or two, but
it says something about the person that was in involved, that was in charge
of this lobby group and who was the President of this organization at the
time, have later being the advising minister for the same ministry, on the
same area and was that during the time of the same sex marriage law was going
through. So he became an important person within the Labor Party and has also
being able to push this issue even further. The
difference between our Partnership Law from 1993 and the new Marriage Law
that entered into force in 2009 is the kids, the children. With the
Marriage Law we now have the right to adoption and the right to fertility
treatments. To me as mom that is quite important. Before that we had the
right to register as same sex couples and have all the same legal rights as
heterosexual couples with regard to insurance, divorce, inheritance,
etcetera, etcetera. Agustin
Villalpando, Enkidu Magazine: How did you manage to go from one point to the
other, from the Partnership Law to the Marriage Law? Karen
Pinholt, Presidenta LLH: It took a while and it was a strategic decision when
we had the Partnership Registration Law and the lobby process for that. It
was a strategic decision then to not enter in the discussion about the
children, because the estimation back then, in the organization, was that we
would never get the law if we demand the whole full package of rights at
once. There had
been different positions within the organization about whether that was the
right thing to ask for, historically. Now I don’t think there are many that
are in doubt anymore but sometimes we had a change of government and in the
beginning of this period of government, in the last 10 years, I think that
people started to think that maybe this can be done and some took the first
step. In the
socialist left party, that’s how it is called there were some people who took
the initiative to present a private proposal of law in the Parliament, which
did not go through. It was also naïve to think that if we changed a few words
in the marriage law then everything would be set. But the change of
government put that into the ordinary law making process, with full speed,
and it wasn’t certain, up until the end, that it would go through but it was
backed by the government and, of course, by the communities. It was
the majority government but there was a small party within the government
said that ‘our people are allowed to vote with their consciousness, they do
not have to vote party-line on this’, so on this particular issue the
government did not automatically have the majority. So we had a lobby process
not just towards the government and their representatives but also towards
the opposition because there were a few parties that were saying ‘we can’t
support it, at least if does not look the way we wanted’, so in the end we
had a large majority with a lot of votes, including from the opposition. Now
Norway has equal rights to marry, your sexual orientation is not an issue
when you marry. We have the right to adopt children, however there are hardly
any countries where Norwegian couples can adopt as many countries does not
allow children to be adopted by homosexuals. However, it is still important
because this means that a gay uncle or a lesbian aunt can adopt kids if the
brother goes away and we have had examples that this was not possible before,
even when the children had close relationships with their uncles. In praxis
even though there are not so many adoptions taking place, it is a very
important issue. The part
of the law that has had the biggest impact on lives and families is the
lesbian access to fertility treatment, that is allowed now. Before
the law it was becoming quite common for lesbians in Norway to travel to
Denmark, where it was allowed, having the fertility treatment there and have
the babies here. Both my children are done that way. Agustin
Villalpando, Enkidu Magazine: And legally? I mean, you were already pregnant? To be
continued…
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