This was supposed to be the big year for Rainbow Flagism in Norway. Tourists are promised Queer Culture Year 2022:
My 2SLGBTQQIA+ celebration experience got off to a reasonable start. Although I did not notice any rainbow flags in the airport, the underground train station carried an “Oslo PRIDE” backlit billboard:
Once above ground, however, I discovered that the entire city has fewer rainbow flags than a typical white heterosexual suburban town in the Northeast USA. Private initiative in the direction of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community is apparently rare. In fact, I never saw a single private home or automobile displaying the rainbow flag. Here are the only businesses that I observed conforming to the U.S. norm (a restaurant, a bar, and a bookstore with a balloon and umbrella):
As in the U.S., the progression from Christianity to Rainbow Flagism is a short and easy journey. At the downtown cathedral:
The city government itself has painted some benches in a rainbow pattern. King Christian IV of Denmark, the founder of modern Oslo, loved music and dance. Here he is with a bench commemorating his love of Broadway shows:
The Munch museum did not have any rainbow flags, but the bookstore featured the standard Holy Trinity of Victimhood:
I’m not sure if this is desecration of the sacred symbol or not:
If the neighbors aren’t displaying the proper flag, one can wear it:
The Oslo City Museum has an exhibit devoted to Queer Culture Year 2022. A school class for 9th and 10th graders was required to create artistic “queer products”:
A “Gay Kid” is defined as “a boy or a girl who will fall in love with a person of the same sex later on in life.” This statement contains quite a bit of heresy against 2SLGBTQQIA+ dogma. There are only two genders for children? Gender ID and sexual orientation are not fluid?
For completeness, from the adult-oriented content of the exhibit:
The Scandinavian Leather Men sign fails to note the CDC’s Scientific monkeypox-at-the-bathhouse advice: “Leather or latex gear also provides a barrier to skin-to-skin contact; just be sure to change or clean clothes/gear between partners and after use.”
Compared to the Scandinavian Leather Men, how much fun can a heterosexual cisgender man have? Here’s Gustav Vigeland’s example of inner peace achieved via fatherhood:
The Nobel Peace Center bookshop offers some Pride-themed material:
The history museum had an outdoor PRIDE exhibit, but it had been taken down and the only remnants were posters and some books:
(I am confused as to why Frida Kahlo, who became famous after marrying an old guy who was already super famous in her chosen field, is a “hero”. Is her method of getting to the top of the art world something that we think the typical young artist can replicate?)
Where Norway seems most deficient is in restroom labeling. The implication, even in buildings that were completed in 2022, the country’s Queer Culture Year, is that there are only two genders. From the Munch museum (opened 2021):
From the National Museum (opened 2022):
I never saw an “all-gender” or “gender-neutral” restroom.
That’s the report from the world of jet lag. I feel that I am almost accustomed to the time zone here and, naturally, it will be time to get on the Norse Atlantic 787 back to FLL tomorrow.
Norwegians rainbow has only seven official colors. Non-inclusive.
I feel it’s appropriate at this time to mention my past dating history with Norwegian women. When I was young, I was fortunate enough to be introduced through a good friend to a young woman who was in the U.S. as an exchange student. According to him, she considered herself to be something of a “nerd” and so – despite the lanugage barrier – he thought we’d hit it off. So we attended a party at his home one night and did indeed hit it off.
On the weekends, mostly, we dated for several months until she had to return. I’d take her out to places in the tristate NJ/NY/CT area to restaurants, amusement parks (including Six Flags Great Adventure!) movies, and other Americana in a 100 mile radius or so.
Her family lived approx. 100km NNE of Oslo. She was one of the most delightful people I’ve ever met in my life. Slim, well put together, just a little makeup, pretty but nonfussy fashion sense. Beautiful in every way. She didn’t speak much English and I didn’t speak much Norwegian, and there’s an echo of Sean Connery’s joke about how he got married to his French wife in there. We didn’t have much time for long, boring conversations.
In any case, we had a kind of “soft light and focus” halo time together and were, I think, beginning to fall in love with each other when sadly, she had to return. I still miss her and remember her fondly. Vibeke.
I don’t think she would have been “problematized” by the Rainbow Flag Religion, but she wouldn’t have been much of an adherent, either. Especially not a ‘coerced’ one. She was Christian with a small “c” and wore a small, unadorned silver crucifix.
Sometimes, things happen in your life that in retrospect, you wish had taken a different turn. My time with her is one of them, but that’s how it goes. I didn’t know.
@Alex, why did not you stay in touch with that girl?
Did you try to friend her on facebook?
@perplexed: I’ve asked myself that question a few times over the years but decided never to do it. I think it would be creepy if I had tried to look her up on social media after all these years. I do know her last name and I could probably find her if I tried hard enough. But I think, on the balance, it’s better to remember an almost perfect time than to risk spoiling it. I assume that she finished her studies and got married and has a family now. She was a wonderful person and after all these years I think it would be intrusive and strange. It was a very sweet relationship and we both knew it was fleeting. I don’t want to botch that.
Not my style.
My experience with Norwegian women has also been positive. There are several downtown beaches where people strip down to bikinis or Speedos and sun themselves or plunge into the water that never gets above 20C. I went to one and got into the spirit by removing my T shirt. Several women immediately approached with offers of cash payment if I would put the shirt back on.
@philg: You need to tell them you’ll take them to Six Flags and ride the rollercoaster and then to NYC for a dinner at a cajun restaurant where they can have some fried alligator. I wouldn’t want to take my shirt off right now in front of this woman. I was happy to do it then, but I know it would horrify both of us after all this time. I used to run 5 miles a day and lift weights at the time I knew her. Not right now! lol.
Intelligence and witty banter only goes so far! Afterward I suppose you’re talking about Vigeland’s statue and he’s in better shape than I am!
Let’s see how long I live…I guess…. lol.
“we dated for several months until she had to return … beginning to fall in love with each other when sadly, she had to return.” Sweet story. More or less inconceivable in this Tindr age.
Greenspun knows how to find the rainbows. Wonder if they’re any better than Calif*, where everyone preaches liberal but practices the holy christian Trump orthodoxy at home.
Sad that Greenspun focuses on the rainbows. Enjoy visiting the country rather than seeking out confirmation bias fed by right-wing media. I noticed it two posts ago and thought, “”Dr” Phil isn’t just going to exclusively post rainbow flag pictures of his European trip, is he?” Just so sad how a bright mind has been infected.
Mike: I am sorry that you don’t share my passion for PRIDE around the world, but I hope that one day you will!
@Mike: I don’t think Greenspun’s focus on the rainbows in addition to his other posts is sad in any sense. What IS sad, I think, is that the Rainbow Flag Religion has become an armband that people need to wear on their arms, all the time, everywhere – in order to be politically acceptable. In education, in the job market, in academia, and everywhere else – it’s a new Religion.
You’re kind of off-base in a very big way. @philg in my opinion is only documenting it and arguably celebrating it. That’s your problem, not his.
Mike is a Dumb Dumb!
@Mike, it is sad to see liberals and folks like you passionate about the Rainbow flag “religion” but yet say nothing about the continuous degradation quality of our public schools.
Off topic: the view from Beacon Hill – our nephew, wife and infant son are moving to Boston, renting a 2 BR in Beacon Hill for $5800 per month. It comes with one parking space.
I guess this is also “getting it out of your system while you’re young”.
I thought that this was an American disease, but apparently it has infected the far corners of the world.
Roger: remember that in four days of wandering around while taking hundreds of pictures these are the only ones that I could find. The average Norwegian might go weeks or months without seeing a rainbow flag. The nation’s commitment to this religion is weak by suburban Boston or Washington, DC standards.
Regarding the arts that those kids created per the “A Queer Product” that their teacher instructed them to work on — what would be the reaction of liberals if a teacher did the same but takes the kids on a field trip to a Church, Synagogue or Mosque and have a Priest, Rabbi and Imam give them a lesson on the arts on display in those buildings and then instructed the kids to create arts based on their experience? How long before the liberals condemn the teacher and demand s/he be removed?
Philip, not related to Oslo, how is Portuguese thing going. I have heard that the Portuguese do not like sale of their citizenship (US has similar investor permanent residence program but charges less then Portugal!). Now I read this. Not that mostly well-to do non-Portuguese Portuguese are affected. Claim:
“conspirators used a criminal organization dedicated to nocturnal raids on private homes and law offices of people supposedly connected to Patrick Drahi, and also used false accusations of drug trafficking and fraud, and ‘anonymous’ sources who have already been convicted in court for defamation of members and friends of the Jewish Community of Porto.”
Was it triggered by Abarmovich’s looks? He is half-Russian but grew up in a family of his Jewish uncle. His non-Yiddish last name strongly suggests that he indeed has Sephardi ancestry on his Jewish side.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/08/30/2506959/0/en/The-Jewish-Community-of-Porto-Denounces-an-Antisemitic-Conspiracy-at-the-European-Public-Prosecutor-s-Office-and-in-a-Book.html
LSI: The Portuguese project is stalled. People who met the conditions in 2020 have yet to be invited over for biometrics and their first visa issuance. The government there is giving the same excuse that the U.S. government gives for the epic Global Entry interview backlog: COVID-19.