Still exuberant after all these years By Kevin McGwin Two drakes have returned - hand in hand to a Malmö park for the third year in a row. Despite the siren songs of interested hens, the two only have eyes for each other
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Homosexuality amongst animals in the wild was first captured on film in 1995. This pair of shelducks has been together since 2003
Like many human homosexual couples, however, they had to adopt. ‘They adopted a goose egg, brooded over it and reared it as their own after it hatched.’ Blomquist didn’t say whether the goose grew into a beautiful swan or if it straightened up and flew right. Animal behaviour experts point out that homosexuality in animals varies from species to species. Less than one percent of all ostriches exhibit homosexual tendencies. All bonobos do. ‘We’ve seen lesbian gulls, who even manage to procreate. They mate with males, but continue to live with their female
partner,’ said Magnus Enquist of the University of Stockholm. When it comes to sociological variation - or deviation there are other developments that are far more ‘unnatural’ than homosexuality, according to Enquist. ‘Homosexuality has been around much longer than humans have. Things like sleeping in pyjamas and religion are far more at odds with nature.’ Homosexuality amongst animals in the wild was first captured on film around 1995. Since then, many people have tried to explain it away by saying the animals were ‘mistaken’ or that ‘it was a form of greeting’,
according to Hillevi Ganetz, a gender and media expert at Uppsala University. ‘People think that because most humans are heterosexual, all animals must be too.’ While homosexual traits have been recorded in animals from bears and apes on down to guinea pigs, human attitudes towards gays also share something in common with the animal kingdom, according to Bruce Bagemihl’s 768-page tome, ‘Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity’. He reports that white-tailed deer are known to be homophobic.
‘Only following orders’ trumped neutrality Neutral Sweden followed Nazi laws forbidding marriages between Jews and other races
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WEDEN made it through the Second World War without choosing sides, earning itself a reputation as a haven for many Jews facing imprisonment in concentration camps. Like other neutral countries, however, Sweden was forced to compromise its position. Most Swedes are already aware that trains loaded with German soldiers passed through the country on their way to Norway to put down that country’s resistance. Less well known is that the Sweden implemented Nazi race laws forbidding mixed marriages. Historians last week unveiled the results of five years’ worth of research into Sweden’s relationship with Nazi Germany. The results were a bombshell. ‘This is a dark chapter in
Malmö Elite again after a year in the cold A lot can go wrong in 40 seconds in sports. Malmö ice hockey fans nearly found that out the hard way
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OR NATURE lovers, a welcome harbinger of spring is the return of migratory birds and the start of mating season. Bird watchers in Malmö, however, are relieved to see that the city’s most celebrated bird couple two gay shelducks - is still together. The pair of daffy drakes has been a couple for three years. Earlier this week, they were reported to have safely returned to the pond in Pildammsparken after spending the winter in more hospitable climes. Lennarth ‘Silver Tern’ Blomquist, chief ornithologist for the city, told public service broadcaster SVT that not even the best efforts of the pond’s most eligible ladies could tempt the two to heed the call of the wild. ‘These two are each other’s one and only. They aren’t interested in hens at all. They act completely like a heterosexual couple - the bigger duck protects the smaller one.’ Shelducks mate for life, so in the case of these two loons, it truly will be a matter of ‘until death do us part’. Even in tolerant Scandinavia, alternative animal lifestyles are far more common than most people imagine. Blomquist said that two gay black swans living in the city even managed to become parents.
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SWEDISH NEWS
THE COPENHAGEN POST 14-20 APRIL 2006
our history, and a period we have been unwilling to talk about,’ said Anders Jarlert, a professor of theology and religion at Lund University. Jarlert and his colleagues have documented that the Foreign Ministry accepted the Nürenburg race laws as soon as they were passed at the 1935 Nazi party congress. The laws banned marriages between Jews and Germans. Swedish civil servants accepted their jurisdiction based on a 1902 Hague Conference stating that couples wishing to marry abroad were governed by their home country’s laws. All Germans marrying in Sweden had to declare that they were not of Jewish heritage. Records show that at least 400 couples were affected by the laws, either by being denied permission to marry or by having their relationship annulled. One couple, Alfred and Liselotte Rapp, had both happen to them. Alfred, a German Jew, and Liselotte, an ‘Aryan’, married
in England after they were unable to marry in Sweden. When they returned home, Swedish authorities informed them that Germany had annulled the marriage and asked Sweden to do the same. In the Rapp’s case, the couple’s parish priest refused to obey the order, but many officials were more than willing to uphold the laws. ‘It’s disgraceful that Sweden adopted Nazi race laws,’ said Mathias Rapp, the couple’s son, to Dagens Nyheter newspaper. Other priests and junior civil servants also disobeyed by failing to indicate Jews’ nationality. Jarlert pinned much of the blame on the ‘only following orders’ mentality of the Foreign Ministry. It was true that the Hague Conference required the laws to be implemented, but he said the ministry failed to look at them critically. ‘There was already a culture of silence at that time and it has continued ever since. We’ve tried to forget all the dark things and to look forward - to
build up a country for all without being reminded of the fact that at one time not everyone was welcome.’
Nürenburg Laws Laws passed in 1935 defining Jews. Jews were categorised as ‘subjects of the state’ - not full citizens. The laws banned marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans. Marriages conducted abroad in order to evade the laws were not recognised. The Nürenburg Laws stripped Jews of their right to hold civil office, banned Jews from flying the German flag and made it illegal to publicly show pictures of Jews. Subsequent laws also required that Jews take specific first names.
ITH THE score 4-2 as the third period of last Wednesday’s Elite Series qualifying match wound down, Malmö Red Hawks fans were celebrating the return to Sweden’s top hockey league. Their party, however, was put on hold, after relegation candidate Leksand scored to make it 4-3 with 40 seconds remaining. Fans on both sides held their breath as Leksand pulled their goalie, adding an extra attacker and making a furious rush to avoid relegation. In the end, pride proved stronger than desperation. Malmö held its lead, ending its embarrassing year of relegation. The club that had played for 16 years at the highest levels of Swedish hockey, winning the national championship twice, put the brakes on a skid that threatened to end in an abyss. Malmö’s Danish forward Kim Staal: ‘It was now or never. I was out of here if we didn’t get promoted. I wasn’t going to play more than one year in the second-best league.’
Malmö Red Hawks: on thin ice
While Red Hawks fans stormed the ice to honour their heroes, chanting, ‘We’re back!’, club management was already preparing to ensure that it stayed there. ‘We’re still on thin ice. If we get promoted then relegated again, we’ll never make it back,’ said club president Percy Nilsson. ‘Now I am going to make a run for the top four of the Elite Series next year.’ Despite their fans’ moment of doubt, Malmö players knew the victory was wrapped up as soon as the score reached 3-0. ‘That was fantastic - that was when I knew we were really close,’ said Juha Riihijärvi.