#lhbt

Celebrate Aro Fest with us! (Dutch version of the text below)

As part of Aromantic Awareness Week, we will celebrate Aro Fest on February 22nd in Utrecht! A national event for anyone identifying within the aromantic spectrum, allies and other people who are interested. You can expect an amazing day filled with community, good conversations and fun activities, focused on the aromantic spectrum. The official schedule has just been released so take a look to see which activities you would like to join!

You can get a ticket for Aro Fest on the website of Aspec Nederland https://www.aspec-nederland.nl/product/21569951/ticket-aro-fest-22-februari-2026

See you soon at Aro Fest!

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Kom Aro Fest met ons vieren!

In het kader van Aromantic Awareness Week, vieren wij in Utrecht op 22 februari Aro Fest! Een landelijk event voor iedereen die zich binnen het aromantische spectrum identificeert, bondgenoten en geïnteresseerden. Het belooft een fantastische dag te worden vol community vorming, goede gesprekken en leuke activiteiten, gericht op het aromantische spectrum.

Het programma is net aangekondigd, dus kijk wat er allemaal te doen is en waar je graag bij zou willen zijn!

Je kan een ticket kopen voor Aro Fest op de website van Aspec Nederland https://www.aspec-nederland.nl/product/21569951/ticket-aro-fest-22-februari-2026

Tot volgende week op Aro Fest!

Translation:

“...i though i coudnt possibly be the only one

Then i sat on the famous bench by the metro that had gotten a bench. There i sat for two years every saturday after work and looked for gays and lesbians.”

This is Kim Friele talking to an interviewer about something that has become quite a legend in norwegian queer circles.

Kim Friele died the 22th november 2021. She is commonly refered as the most important activist in norwegian queer history. From the decriminilzation of gay sex to marriage equality she has been at the front and instrumental for equality in Norway.

Kim was born in 1935 the 27th of may in Bergen. She came from a typical nuclear family with one sibling and two parents. She was a lot like her dad, had his good sense of humor and good mood and both shared their like in cowboy films.

She was a bit of a trouble kid and had a lot of energy as could be seen from being expelled numerous times from school but she was also described by the principal as “a very kind little person at heart”. When she was around 14-15 she started falling in love with girls. Her family didnt really understand why, but was accepting regardless when she told them. Afterall at this time the only way she or her parents knew about gay people at all was from a highly innacurate medical books they happened to have at home.

She did marry a man for two years before getting divorced. Then she decided to try and find others like her because she understood that she couldnt be the only one with these feelings.

After many saturday afternoons on the before-mentioned bench Kim met a gay man that introduced her to Forbund 48, (what was originally started in denmark and is now lgbt+ denmark, i have a post about Doris Pollas that was part of the founding here:)

Kim became active in the organisation but also grew tired of the way things were run. Kim insisted on being open with herself which was controversial in forbund 48, because at this time it was a highly anonomys and private group and she accused them of not doing enough outward oriented work. She wanted the people who wanted to come out to be able to so that was what she did. Kim came out as a lesbian as the first known person in Norway in 1963.

Kim met the love of her life Wenche Lowzow when doing lobbying work. Wenche was a politician from the party Højre and initially Kim was hesitant about meeting her, afterall they wildly disagreed on politics and she was afraid that she would loose her cool when confronting her, thereby harm the organization she represented at large but regardless the two met up.

The first two meetings were purely proffesional but after the third Kim partly moved in. The two first years of their relationship was secret, and Kim did quite litterally hide in the closet quite a few times whenever Wenche got visits. When Wenche did come out it impacted her political career radically. None the less they stayed together until Wenches death.

Because of her confidence and fearless attitude towards athorities she has paved the way for all queer norwegians to come. She has seen great progress but that also had made her aware of how fragile progress can be. As she said in a recent interview, we haven’t won the fight yet and we have to protect the rights we have achieved because if we don’t we might just lose them.

Thank you for everything Kim, we won’t forget you.

This post was largely based on a video interview as well as an article:

Both are in norwegian but i highly recommebd anyone who can understand norwegian to check them out. Here are also some more pictures of her:

https://www.nrk.no/norge/kim-friele-er-dod-1.15741118#album-1-15741136

Pride Week Saturday (post 2 of 2)

Today was the final day of the Pride Week. Under normal circumstances a day full of parades, celebrations, parties and gatherings. But none of that because of Covid-19 for the 2nd year in a row now. Let’s hope for 'normal’ celebrations next year, if I’m still around that is.

So I had my own little ‘one man parade’ in town today to show my support to the LGBTQ+ community and decided to wear my pink riding boots with silver glitters. I bought these 2nd hand off of eBay in the UK a couple of years ago. The boots are made of PVC and I really have no idea as to what brand they are. But they definitely are a lot of fun!

Demonstration Binnenhof (parliament building), 1969

Banners read: “Aren’t we also people of flesh and blood- Aren’t we also people with feelings- Destroy article 248 bis. If you please / please”, “248 bis- Makes love a crime”.