50 Years Norway Apologizes for Law That Criminalized Gays

Norway's government has released a formal apology for the law established 50 years ago, which criminalized homosexuality. As a result of the country's penal code, about 119 people were convicted in Norway between 1902 and 1950 for homosexuality.

RELATED:
Gas Pipeline to be Built From Norway to Poland

The law was dismissed on April 21, 1972. According to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, "gay people have been treated as criminals and prosecuted by the Norwegian authorities," he said after 50 years after homosexuality was decriminalized.

"The law had an important symbolic value and meant that homosexuals were exposed to multiple convictions, discrimination, slander, and blackmail," said the statement issued by the government. "Criminalising and prosecuting people for their love life, treating [medically] healthy people, depriving them of career and work opportunities are serious violations of our values."

LGBT+ activists have appreciated the public apology's statement; at the time, they called for more measures of that kind, particularly one intended to ban so-called gay conversion therapy in Norway. The recognition of a third gender was also demanded by campaigners and better access to care for transgender people.

"For many of us, it may be too little too late; we know that many people have lived and are living their lives marked by stigma," said the leader of the Foreningen FRI association, Inge Alexander Gjestvang. In 1993, Norway was the second country in the world to legally acknowledged civil partnerships for same-sex couples.