Finnish legislation was only changed in 1971 to allow homosexual acts, and in a small, predominantly rural country like Iceland the local attitudes were for a long time less permissive than in densely populated urban areas, such as the Scandinavian metropoles of Copenhagen and Stockholm.

The Nordics have not always embraced LGBTIQ communitiesĪ look at the historical attitudes toward homosexuality in the region complicates the generally favourable picture of the Nordics as being tolerant even though Sweden, Denmark and Iceland decriminalised homosexual acts already in the 1930s and the 1940s, the Nordic countries were for the most part of the twentieth century generally neither tolerant nor accepting to homosexuals or the idea of queerness. However, with a closer look, the differences between the Nordic countries become apparent and Nordic tolerance reveals a more complex history of which there are still visible traces in today’s societies. Today, the Nordics are often considered to be an equal, tolerant and permissive region, even as a sort of queer utopia, or at least an exceptionally tolerant area for LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer) people and communities.

Benediktsdóttir, Hyttinen, Hafsteinsdóttir, Ellenberger, Taavetti, Juvonen