TEXT: Ingeborg Rydsaa (Retrieved from - People are still killed because they are queer - Pulsen på Bergen - Skoleaviser.no)
PHOTO: Kaveh Ayreek
Erwin Navarro is the general manager of "Skeiv Verden Vest". He is involved in organising Pride Week in Bergen and has good contact with the queer community at the school. "We meet many people who face discrimination and racism because of their orientation.
"I moved to Norway 13 years ago for my studies. I did a master's degree in Tromsø, where I wrote about integration policy for minorities. Then I found love, and we moved to a small village in Trøndelag. It was very difficult. I was both a foreigner and queer, and couldn't find my own network. Eventually I moved to Bergen and worked for Caritas with integration and language cafés. And then I got to know Skeiv Verden Vest. It was good to "come home" in a way - to meet others who were like me. When a job was advertised there, I applied and got it.
It is an interest organisation for queer people with a minority background. Our target group is queer immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, etc.
Because we work closely with the school and the introduction centre. We want to develop better programmes for queer people, because Bergen municipality should be a municipality for everyone. Many people here at the school are discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. We try to help them, provide counselling and help them with networks. If it's serious, we help them report it to the police.
Being queer is not a disease, and it is only a disease that can be transmitted. Homosexuality was removed from the WHO list of diseases in 1982. Stigmatisation is old-fashioned, and conversion therapy doesn't work. It's counterproductive and dangerous to people's lives and health. Don't be afraid of us, we're nice and kind (and not contagious).
No, not everyone is queer. Many are, but many are also "allies", they want to show solidarity, perhaps because they have friends who are queer, or family members, or they know what it's like to be discriminated against.
Being queer is not a disease, and it is only a disease that can be transmitted. Homosexuality was removed from the WHO list of diseases in 1982. Stigmatisation is old-fashioned, and conversion therapy doesn't work. It's counterproductive and dangerous to people's lives and health. Don't be afraid of us, we're nice and kind (and not contagious).
I often hear this statement when I visit schools, often from people who come from religious and closed societies. "Queers only exist here in the West, I've never seen homosexuals in Ethiopia," they might say, for example. But you haven't. You haven't seen them because they are killed if they come out. And if they don't exist, why are there laws against homosexuality?
Some say that they feel that they are being forced to raise the rainbow flag, walk in the parade or to learn about it. PRIDE wants to show that there are many different people with different skin colours and orientations. But the most important message is this: there are still people who are killed, harassed and discriminated against because of who they are, because they are queer.
