People would ‘call in gay’ to work in Sweden because of bizarre LGBTQ+ laws and people are shocked

People are only just learning how a group of LGBTQ+ protestors used their sexuality to call in sick to work - an act that helped overturn how homosexuality was classified in law.

It’s been over eight decades since Sweden decriminalised homosexuality.

It became one of the first five European countries to legalise same-sex marriage in 2009, following the adoption of a gender-neutral marriage law by the Riksdag.

And while this was a landmark moment in Tre Kronor’s history, so is the 1979 ruling that being homosexual would no longer be classed as a ‘mental illness’.

Previously, officials on the National Board of Health and Welfare believed that homosexuality was nothing but a ‘sexual deviation’.

Being homosexual was classified as a 'mental illness' up until 1979 (Getty Stock Image)

Officials believed that being part of the LGBTQ+ community reflected an underlying personality disorder, as per a 2022 paper published in the Global Society journal.

Because of this general consensus, the period between 1944 and 1979 saw various ‘treatments’ being used to eradicate the ‘disease’, including locking homosexuals away in psychiatric wards.

Protesting the classification and the barbaric ‘treatments’, the first Liberation Demonstration took place in Stockholm in 1977.

After three years of staging protests, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) employed a tactic known as ‘reverse discourse’.

Reverse discourse, a Michel Foucault-coined concept, describes a form of resistance where a group of marginalised people use language attributed to them by large powers to negotiate a new position of power.

Protestors were asked to call into work, citing the reason as being 'gay' (Getty Stock Image)

To apply the tactic, the RFSL asked employees of the Social Insurance Agency (SIA) in August 1979, to ring the head office and tell them they were unable to come to work.

Why? Because they were gay, and therefore ill, according to official legislation.

One person even told a local radio station they received an sickness-benefit payout for 'calling in gay'.

This protest formed part of the RFSL’s wider efforts, which included completing a sit-in at the National Board of Health and Welfare, as per Snopes.

Less than two months after people rang in sick to work and attended the sit-in, the classification was overturned; being gay was no longer thought of as a mental illness.

At the time, Sweden was the first country in the world to remove homosexuality from its official list of mental illnesses and paved the way for increased rights for LGBTQ+ people.

Despite taking place 46 years ago, some people are only just learning of the protest now.

Replying to a viral video that TikToker @clarymarisolfelix made on the subject, one user typed: “Sweden???? I wasn’t aware of your game.

“Freaking iconic,” said someone else.

The sit-in and the combined effort to call in sick from work saw the classification being overturned (RFSL)

A third typed: “This would’ve been a huge flex to the gay Swedish people ‘cause imagine you got paid work and they asked why you can’t come in.

"I’m feeling gay today cue ‘Born this Way’ by Lady Gaga in the background."

Others remarked how 'shocked' they were that Sweden would ever have the classification in place, with one writing: "It's weird, cause I literally thought that Sweden is paradise and equality when I was a kid.

"But that's because the teachers made everything look so magical, and when I grew up, and it was only pain. I thought life would be like Bolibompa."

Someone else penned: "The same country that ABBA came from btw and Sweden thought homosexuality was wrong."