Queer World is shocked by the report that reveals serious failures in the handling of the terrorist threat and communication with the queer community before and after the terrorist attack on 25 June 2022. The report paints a clear picture of how a lack of expertise and insight about queer people and poor communication led to one of the most serious acts of hatred against queer people not being prevented, and that the queer community afterwards did not have the opportunity to heal together.
The report describes the decision to cancel both the parade and the commemoration as a clear violation of our human rights to freedom of expression and assembly. We were deprived of the opportunity to gather and strengthen each other in our community, as well as receive sympathy and support from society at large. Instead, we were made invisible and the public space remained unsafe for queer people in the aftermath of the terrorist attack.
Today, queer people are still unsafe in the public space, and Queer World believes that the handling of the terrorist attack has led to lasting insecurity for our target group. It will take a lot to restore security. The poor handling has also meant that many of Skeiv Verden's members are afraid to participate in this year's pride march, as no visible improvements or new measures have yet been communicated to make pride safer this year.
The fact that Oslo Pride and FRI were made scapegoats for the cancellation of the commemorative event last year, instead of PST and the Chief of Police taking responsibility for explaining and communicating the reason for the cancellation, has also led to unnecessary conflict in the queer community. Queer World's target group has many members with a high level of minority stress who have been further burdened by having to try to deal with the great trauma and grief after the attack.
Many of the possible deterrents to the terrorist attack highlighted in the report seem to stem from a lack of expertise, information and prioritisation of queer people as a potentially vulnerable group to terrorism.There are therefore many different missteps and miscommunications that ultimately meant that the terrorist attack was not prevented.What is probably most shocking is that a FB post with a burning pride flag during Oslo Pride week was not a strong enough indicator of a clear terrorist threat against queer people.
It was clear to the queer community that this was a terrorist attack just a few hours after the shooting, and the attack on the entire minority is motivated by hatred of all queer people. The fact that the Minister of Justice, Emilie Enger Mehl, did not want to describe it as a terrorist attack until today has meant that the seriousness and scope of the shooting for the queer community has been greatly underplayed.
We in the queer organisations have long known about an increased threat of terrorism, increased harassment and hatred against queer people, so it seems both ignorant and degrading that it is only now being taken seriously by the police, PST and the Minister of Justice.
Although FRI, Oslo Pride and the 25 June Support Group were able to read the report in advance, we have only gained access to the full report today, and will be reading the almost 300-page report thoroughly in the near future. We will ensure that further work to improve safety for queer people also takes into account queer people with minority backgrounds.
Queer people with minority backgrounds often have little trust in the police and authority figures due to experiences from their home countries and the systemic racism that unfortunately remains a problem in the police.
We will therefore continue our dialogue with PST, the police and the Ministry of Justice, together with the other queer organisations, to ensure that the measures taken do not lead to our target group being suspected or subjected to profiling at queer events such as Pride because of their ethnic or religious affiliation.
We look forward to the report leading to concrete changes so that similar mistakes do not lead to similar situations in the future - and that these changes take place in collaboration with queer organisations.
