Pro-LGBTQIA development.
Norway’s parliament outlawed hate speech against transgender people, a move that expanded the country’s penal code which has already been protecting gay and lesbian people since 1981.
The country’s penal code’s amendments specifically outlawed discrimination based on “gender identity or gender expression”, while also changing “homosexual orientation” to “sexual orientation”. This means that bisexual as well as lesbian and gay people will be explicitly protected from discrimination.
Violators – if a judge decides their actions were motivated by someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) – can face a fine or up to a year in jail for private remarks, and a maximum of three years in jail for public comments.
Norway is actually one of the more liberal European countries, allowing trans people to legally change gender without a medical diagnosis since 2016.
As quoted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Norway’s Minister of Justice and Public Security Monica Maeland stated that trans people are “an exposed group when it comes to discrimination, harassment and violence”. As such, “it is imperative that the protection against discrimination offered by the criminal legislation is adapted to the practical situations that arise.”
