Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 13:49 N From: Lewis Taylor Subject: KOM UT, no.1 1994 KOM UT INTERNATIONAL Stockholm, Sweden, No. 1 1994 Kom Ut is the bimonthly newspaper published by RFSL, the Swedish ed- eration for Gay and Lesbian Rights. Kom Ut International is a transla- tion of key articles from Kom Ut that accompanies issues sent to for- eign subscribers. Partnership law July 1? The motion on the introduction of partnership by Barbro Westerholm and other members of the Liberal Party follows the Partnership Committee's proposal. The motion contains a complete proposal for a law and has the official stamp that a proposition from the Government would have had. However, there will be no proposition from the Government, since the majority of the parties in the present Government are against partnership. At present the report of the Partnership Committee is up for comment by concerned parties. The time allotted for comments expires on March 15 and on March 24 the Standing Committee on Civil Law Legislation will have its first meeting on the matter. At that time it will be easier to determine which way the winds are blowing--that is, whether or not partnership will be a fact during the parliament's spring ses- sion. Karin Pilsaeter, the Liberal Party's representative on the Standing Committee, s convinced that the law will pass. She says that the Com- mitee will not give in to the religious righ, which will probably campaign avidly to stop the partnerhip law from passing. "Unless the juridicalexperts have serious objections, I believe we will be able to push partnership through this spring. The Committee has presented a proposal for a law and it is possible that the Court of Appeal and other authoritis will want to make minor changes here and there. But if there are no major juridical objections, it will very likely pass. "The other risk is that tere may be too few vots. We assume that a compact majority within the Liberal Party will vote for the law. I think there are perhaps five or six who have said they are against the partnership law." Partnership for homosexuals is a question that has divided all three of the traditional bourgeois parties. For example, Fredrik Reinfeldt (Moderate Party) and Christina Linderholm, Lennart Dal`us and Per Granstedt (Center Party) have submitted motions of their own. Chatrine P}lsson on the one hand and Ingvar Svensson and Pontus Wiklund on the other, all of the Christian Democratic Party, have submitted two mo- tions on common households. The difference between them lies in the latter's detailed ideological reasoning. For example, they say that a partnership law would mean breaking the neutrality principle for co- habitation legislation which the Parliament adopted in 1969. Svens- son/Wiklund do not in fact want neutrality. The Parliament should, ac- cording to their reasoning, clearly accentuate heterosexual marriage. They maintain that this is what guarantees the survival of society both physically and ideologically. Both of the motions agree that Par- liament should review the various forms of common households and fa- cilitate for them to enter into voluntary contracts. Th Christian Democrats say that a free "contracts market" must be established for those who do not want to or cannot use marriage as a legal form of co- habitation. Karin Pilsaeter does not at all beleve that the Christian Democrats are honest when they say they want to support the vaious forms of co- habitation. "Their motion on common households are merely a way to distract from the question of homosexual partnership. It s not possible to make such a review. How, for example, would it be possible toregulate a common household consisting of a number of students in a collective where people are constantly joning and leaving? Who owns the contract for the apartment? What about inheritance in such a household? It is unreasonable! "Another reason is that there is no demand for such a review." Ms Pilsaeter that homosexual households differ from the type of common households the Christian Democrats want to fight for in that they are based on love and a shared life. This is the motivation for making ho- mosexual relationships legally equal to heterosexual relationships. The official Social Democratic motion on partnership for homosexuals is signed by Maj-Lis Loeoew. According to this there should be a major- ity in Parliament in favor of registered partnership and "Parliament should create a partnership legislation on its on initiative to avoid any additional delays in a question that is important for many." An additional Social Democratic motion on partnership, signed by Mar- gareta Winberg and Maj Britt Theorin, among others, maintains that "negative differentiation of homosexuals is not compatible with a de- mocracy." The Leftist Party has submitted a motion, signed by Gudrun Schyman and Lars Werner, that is also based on the Partnership Commit- tee's report. The Liberal Party's motion calls fo the law on registered partner- ship to take effect on 1 July 1994. Karin Pilsaeter believes this is fully possible unless there ar juridical complication Kjell-Olof Feldt thinks HIV infected persons should be allowed to have sex Kjell-Olof Feldt, Finance Minister in the former Social Democratic goernment, was asked last year to take over as chairman of Noah's Ark, a support organization for persons with AIDS and HIV-infected persons. Mr. Feldt felt he wanted to do something besides his bank and company boards and his lectures. He felt he wanted to be involved in something that directly had something to do whit people's living conditions. He thinks that through his work in Noah's Ark he will learn about ideal- istic, non-profit activities and engaged people. And to help people with an important and difficult social problem. He reminds us that he was in the Government when the word HIV was first mentioned. "We were quicker to react and to inform than other countries." But he does not mention that the same government also introduced the world's strictest legislation, for example, that HIV-infected persons fall under the law on contagious diseases. He thinks HIV-infected persons have the right to have sex, but that they have a special responsibility not to spread AIDS. But he avoids mentioning which techniques are "permissible." Homosexuals invisible in new law on caring for sick children Soon gay parents will have the right to temporary parent allowances to take care of sick children. But homosexuals are not mentioned in the report. The homosexual co-mother or co-daddy must accept to be counted as single. The reform is intended for single parents. Co-parents will be classi- fied as close relatives and will thus be eligible to stay at home to take care of their partner's sick child and receive monetary compensa- tion for the associated loss of income.