Oslo Pride is Norway’s largest celebration of queer love and diversity, and focuses on equal rights and human dignity. The festival runs over 9 days and consists of Pride House, Pride Park, Pride Square and Pride Parade. Here, everyone can be exactly who they are.
Oslo Pride is made up of around 80 year-round volunteers, and around 300 volunteers who join in during the festival.
Our first stop is Pride Park, located in Spikersuppa. It has entertainment, educational booths, and more!
Just your average Norwegian girls.
You might think that all Scandinavians are tall, thin blonde people. You’d be wrong.
Proud to be here.
The folks here sell pride-related merchandise, which is mostly just colorful flags and clothes. Just like pretty-much every pride event we’ve ever been to. But, I guess these drably-attired folks could use a little color.
Pride is educational!
Here we have a fun game of ring toss. Now, I know everyone has done this with a real penis (well, at least I have), but five penises is much more interesting, don’t you think?
Behind the ring toss is a very large representation of female anatomy. I’m not sure how the game is played, but I imagine you are awarded points for getting the object in the correct hole….just like intercourse, amirite ladies?
How very true!
Even if you can’t read Norwegian, you can figure out what’s going on by parsing the website’s URL. And by knowing that “dong” means the same thing in English and in Norwegian.
Men, men, men.
I pose in front of the SLM Oslo banner, wondering where all the manly men are. It seems that the leather community is not well represented in Scandinavia, and (we are told) not particularly welcome at Pride events. Yes, as with all these LGBT and Pride events I have attended, they are all-inclusive of folks they approve of; otherwise, please stay away.
Photobomb!
Without introduction, this fellow stands next to me as I’m being photographed. Well, finally, a manly man!
He turns out to be none other than Georg Luschgy, Mr. Leather Norway 2022! He is a charming fellow, and I talk to him for quite a while. He tells me that their club is having an open house that evening (meaning, girls can attend), and invites us to attend. Well, why not?
Prideful colors.
We return to the hotel to find appropriate attire. I do my best to get all the colors in the right order, but I am obviously unprepared to be representin’. You can never bring enough clothes, or the right clothes, when traveling abroad…
An unassuming location.
Photographs are forbidden inside the club. Sad, because the club has a real dungeon. You walk down a narrow stairwell into a poorly lighted cellar, the walls made entirely of bricks. The rooms have equipment, designed for his pleasure. Or pain. <Channel Buddy Cole’s voice for this next part.> Clothing is optional, so when passing in a narrow hallway, be aware of which way you are turning your body. I know which way I’m turning mine.
See? I told you: He’s MLN!
I pose again with Georg. One thing about gay men: you can be as bubalicious as you want, and they are okay with it. Well, I guess that’s true of all men….
So we stay until late, get a good night’s sleep, then get up early to get ready for the Pride Parade.
But, it’s been cancelled.
Spoiler alert: Normally, we take a whimsical view of life and adventure. But now we have to be serious.
This can’t be good.
During the night, a fellow shot 23 people who were dining and drinking in outdoor nightclubs (one block from our hotel), killing two of the people.
To put this in perspective, the average number of murders in Norway is about 25 per year. So this was about 10% of the total. In America, the number of murders in 2020 was 24,576. So this is the equivalent of someone in America killing 2,456 people.
The Norwegians are stunned. We talked to our new Leathermen friends. “Shocking… this will change everything… Norway hasn’t experienced anything like this in so long. It’s not supposed to happen.”
Flowers to show support.
People bring flowers to the site of the shooting. At first, just a few, but soon they come in droves, adding to the monument.
Flowers are placed in multiple locations around the area cordoned off by the police.
Med dypeste medfølelse til vår valgte familie. Varme tanker fra deres brødre i lær.
The grieving people also leave notes expressing their pain.
This is remarkable to us in that no one is coordinating any of this. The people here are doing all of this spontaneously, orderly, and genuinely.
Hugs.
We see people hugging and think, “They couldn’t have known the victims. Half a million people live here. Why are they so upset?”
Finding comfort.
Then we realize that we are the ones with the problem.
Compassion.
You shouldn’t have to personally know someone to grieve at the unfairness of life.
Consolation.
Whoever was attacked, they are one of us.
Mourning.
And maybe if we did things better, if we understood and helped others understand, this wouldn’t happen.
Sorrow.
But right now, all we can do is to let our sadness out.
Heartache.
We can find our friends and seek solace in touching, in sharing a moment of connection.
Poignant.
We can remember that the world is not supposed to be this way, and we must do better.
Confusion.
We try to explain to the innocent, explain how we allow this to happen.
The royal acknowledgment.
A number of cars arrive, including this one with a special license plate. Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby has arrived.
It’s the whole family.
In fact, Her Highness Princess Märtha Louise, His Royal Highness The Crown Prince Haakon, His Highness Prince Sverre Magnus, and Her Royal Highness The Princess Ingrid Alexandra, along with the Crown Princess have come to pay their respects.
I guess there is more to it…
We see this poster, and wonder what it means. The internet provides the answer.
On September 04, 2016, the King of Norway delivered an inspirational speech of acceptance that reached out to the country’s LGBT community this week. At a garden party outside the Royal Palace in Oslo, King Harald V addressed the crowd of over 1,000 guests to declare equality for all.
“Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and boys and girls who love each other,” he said.
The king also included refugees in his speech, explaining that he’ll consider you a Norwegian even if you weren’t born in Norway.
“Norwegians are also immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland, Sweden, Somalia and Syria,” he declared. “It is not always easy to say where we come from, to which nationality we belong. Home is where the heart is. That cannot always be placed within country borders.”
King Harald V also insisted that religion shouldn’t separate his people either, saying, “Norwegians believe in God, Allah, everything and nothing.”
“In other words: you are Norway. We are Norway,” he concluded. “My biggest hope for Norway is that we will manage to take care of each other, that we can build this country further on trust, solidarity and generosity.”
We should learn from King Harald V.
Flowers honoring the victims.
Throughout the morning and afternoon, thousands of mourners do what little they can to try and understand what happened.
Let the parade begin.
We are told that city officials canceled the parade because they were unsure if the gunman was part of a terrorist group and did not want to take chances. However, after a while, we see groups of gaily dressed people walking down the main street.
“We won’t hide.”
It seems that the people decided to have their own parade.
They chant, “We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear.” We hear other chants in Norwegian, and ask what they mean. “Our fight continues” and “There is only love in our streets.”
Thousands and thousands of people have taken to the street, celebrating their defiance of fear and violence. There are no floats or corporate sponsors. Just an overwhelming outpouring of love, support, and representation of the community.
I’m part of this, too.
I am here, living this, and I add my voice to theirs.
The parade ends at one of the shrines, where even more people lay down flowers.
Norwegian security forces stand lookout.
We ask a group of Norwegians what they think of the police in the windows, watching. They tell us that they’ve never seen anything like it, but find comfort knowing that the police are vigilant.
Stolt.
The day winds down, and people eventually disperse and return to their homes.
We had been invited back to the Leathermen club for “café”. We walk there and are unsure of whether we should go in; only men are present, and it seems like it is a private event for the local community. We turn around to leave when our new friend, Georg, comes running after us. “Don’t leave! Come join us!” He introduces us to some very amazing people and instantly we feel again like we belong.
So, we spend the afternoon drinking beer with Norway’s finest Leathermen, and remember that one misguided person should not, and shall not, destroy our faith in the goodness of humanity.