Gays and lesbians met up before city vote

Homosexuals were in the majority when BLUS (the organisation for gay, lesbian and transsexual students in Copenhagen) hosted a meeting prior to the city elections

by Mathias Holm Pedersen, English version by Sebastian Zieler

At Copenhagen City Hall there is a committee called the drama queen-committee, led by one of the city's mayors Klaus Bondam. This is according to Morten Kabell, who happens to be gay himself, of the Danish party ‘the Red-Green Alliance’ at the pre-election meeting held by BLUS (the student organisation for gay, lesbian and transsexuals in Copenhagen).

Klaus Bondam was invited, along with the other parties, to Studenterhuset to discuss gay-related topics prior to the municipal elections 17 November.

Stop hate crime

One of the topics of discussion were attacks on homosexuals - hate crimes.

»It is a big problem when the victims of 4 pct. of all attacks in Copenhagen believe that the attack takes place because of their sexuality,« said Iben Wiene Rathje of the Socialist People’s Party (SF).

»We have told the police that this needs to be taken seriously,« said Jakob Hougaard of the Social Democrats (S), and was backed up by Pia Allerslev of the centre-right party Venstre (V), who added that, »serious action needs to be taken against the idiots who commit hate crimes.«

Gay and Muslim

The candidate from the Danish People’s Party (DF), Carl Christian Ebbesen, thought that Muslims in particular cannot accept homosexuality. He wants to ban the construction of a Grand Mosque in Copenhagen.

»I’ve yet to hear a Muslim of faith say that they accept homosexuals,« he said. He was quickly interrupted by a young man in the audience:

»I am gay and I am Muslim,« he announced.

This did not affect the DF candidate's opinion.

Homosexual culture house

There was no dispute over whether to build a so-called house of culture for homosexuals in the city.

»The Social Liberal’s have been progressive in the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, and queer- ed.) area from the beginning, and we would happily support such a house,« said Klaus Bondam.

Although he agreed, the Conservative Party's Karsten Skawbo-Jensen (K) thought that the house should be privately funded and not paid for by the state.

The meeting was held 3 November in Studenterhuset by BLUS in collaboration with LBL (the National Association of Gays & Lesbians).

uniavisen@adm.ku.dk

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