New Network for Gays and Bisexuals in the
Norwegian Defence Forces
Este
articulo en español:
Nueva
Red para
Gays y
Bisexuales
en las
Fuerzas de
Defensa
Noruegas
The
Norwegian Military has discovered that it neglects homosexuals, and
will now use comic books and a special gay-network to increase the
understanding and acceptance of gays and bisexuals in the military
services, writes Dagsavisen, a newspaper published in Oslo.
“We
have felt that homosexuality is a neglected problem field. The Army
has always claimed that homosexuality is no problem. It has been a
taboo. But we must dare to address our taboos, now”, says Stian
Jensen, national “tillitsvalgt” [spokesman] for the Norwegian
recruits. [In Norway the recruits elect annually among themselves
spokesmen on each level of their organisation, individuals who will
represent them and their interests when dealing with their superiors
on each level. They participate as the recruits’ representative in
various official contexts. The individuals, who have been elected by
local units, choose on regional and national levels from within
their ranks, national spokesmen, representing the recruits for
instance before the political authorities etc.]. Together with three
other national spokesmen, he is now inaugurating a contact network
for gays in the military. The network has the name “Glad Millitär”
[Happy Military] and will be a place where recruits can get in touch
with other gays and bisexuals, and the network will conduct
informative and social work. The Initiative is supported by the
military authorities.
Provocations necessary
“The
army is not reputed for being caring and understanding”, Jensen
says. “Therefore we must provoke and shock. We must get privates
and officers to think through several issues, for instance, how they
use their language, and they must learn to feel empathy with other
persons”. The first step on Jensen’s program is the publication
of a comic strip book that will be distributed to all recruits this
autumn.
“In
a comic strip, we can address issues that touch upon taboos. We can
exaggerate and say things we otherwise would not have said. In that
way, we hope to contribute to more tolerance and acceptance, also by
making fun of certain attitudes that still exist in the army”.
Jensen
emphasizes that the recruits are intended to mirror the society
[Norway has general conscription] – “this includes gays too. I
definitely do not believe that this would hurt the army. Rather the
opposite.”
Focus on minorities
Annually,
the organisations of the Norwegian recruits organise
“Soldataksjonen”, [the soldier campaign], a series of discussion
groups, seminaries, lectures and information evenings, in which
issues that concern the recruits are addressed. This year, the
annual Soldier initiative has the title “Plurality in the defence
forces” and will focus exclusively on minorities in the Defence
Forces.
Dagsavisen:
It is well known that it is a very masculine culture in the Army,
and that it may be difficult for straight and gay men and women and
members of ethnic and cultural minorities to encounter this. This
makes it difficult to recruit more people from the minorities. Will
you make the army less masculine?
Jensen:
Yes, why not. We should focus more on other things than the issues
for which the Defence Forces are reputed, for instance, the fact
that it is a very dynamic and challenging place to work. In
addition, we want to stop thinking in troops and military units.
Instead we should focus more on the persons in the Defence Forces
and their individual needs.
Klassekampen,
another newspaper published in Oslo, has interviewed another of the
organisers of the new network, Magnus Berg Sydvold. He says that the
Army has traditionally been perceived of as the place where boys
turn into men, where the traditional ideal of a man is cultivated,
where inclusion of diversity is not easy.
“However,
the Army functions better when everybody respect and accept each
other. Otherwise, the result will be inefficiency and a bad image in
the rest of the society.”
“We
start in a way from the very beginning. There is no research from
Norway dealing with the gays in the Defence Forces.”
He
underlines further that we do not know how many gays there are in
the Defence Forces, nor if there are people who leave the Army
because of their sexual orientation.
Klassekampen cites a study from Sweden, published in 1999
about the living conditions for gays and lesbians in the armed
forces. This study showed that harassment and discrimination occurs
in Sweden, but it concluded that the real problem is a lack of
openness.
The
image that many new recruits have of the Defence Forces as a place
cultivating a traditional masculinity ideal, often results in an expectation
among many gays that it will be received negatively if they are open
about their sexual orientation. 80% of all gays in the Defence
Forces in Sweden perceive of the general attitudes around them as
negative towards homosexuality. This contrasts sharply with the
general society, where gays according to the same survey, experience
that 70% have positive attitudes towards them. At the same time,
many recruits, who chose to be open about their sexual orientation
in the Army indeed encounter positive responses from their straight
comrades, but they assume themselves that their individual good
experience cannot be representative…
Fuentes:
Væpnet
og homo
Nå
er det startet et nettverk for militære i forsvaret. Navnet er Glad
Militær.
Av
Lotta Rudberg Elstad onsdag 6. august, 2003
http://www.klassekampen.no/nyheter/goto?lid=185773
Tegner
og forteller for homo-aksept
07. 08. 2003:
JON
MARTIN LARSEN
http://www.dagsavisen.no/innenriks/2003/08/745327.shtml
Si
tienes algun comentario, nos gustaría recibirlo. Sólo escribe y
envia. Nos gustaría saber tu nombre y tu correo electrónico,
pero no es obligatorio. Muchas Gracias.
Atte.
Tu
