A sharepic claims that in 1979, homosexuality was classified as a disease in Sweden. The Swedes are said to have reported themselves unfit for work as a protest.
Once again we received inquiries about a Sharepic we were already familiar with. It's about a protest in Sweden in 1979, when homosexuality was still classified as an illness.
Is that correct?

Homosexuality was classified as a disease in Sweden in 1979. The Swedes are protesting by declaring themselves unable to work. The reason:
They felt gay.
The fact check
Colleague Andre writes at the end of July 2019:
In Sweden, homosexuality was considered a crime until 1944. In fact, it was listed as a disease in Sweden until 1979, as evidenced by several sources. On October 19, 1979, the Swedish Health and Welfare Agency removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses.
So at least the sharepic should say “until” 1979, but let’s not be so petty, because the really exciting thing is the method of protest: Did Swedes really report sick and receive sick pay accordingly?
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In fact, there are sources here and there that speak of this type of protest. For example, in the book “Reader's Trip Stockholm: The Dancing Queen in the Archipelago” on the subject of homosexuality ( see here ):
Although Swedish morals changed fundamentally with the 1968 movement, homosexuality was still listed as a disease in public statistics until 1979! Only when some gays actually reported sick to their companies and applied for sick pay did the state remove homosexuality from the list of illnesses.
Whether this was really the decisive point in the end can of course be viewed critically, as it has not been sufficiently proven.
Occupation of a stairwell
Much more common are reports of other protests, such as an occupation of the stairwell of the National Health and Welfare Office during Gay Liberation Week 1979 in Sweden. This occupation is also documented with pictures and can be found on the website of the LGBT magazine qx.se. Here it is said that the occupation led to homosexuality being removed from the register of disease diagnoses. This must be seen in combination with the fact that the authority had a new liberal general director in Barbro Westerholm.
You can read a very similar description on Rickard Södeberg's blog. Here too, the occupation of the stairwell was described as the reason for the change in the law ( see here ). He describes the occupation as a non-violent protest on August 29, 1979, during which the head of the authority gave in on site and thus set the course.
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You can also read about the successful occupation of the stairwell on the website of the non-profit organization RFSU (Swedish National Association for Sexual Education) ( compare ), as well as on the website of the Swedish (local) newspaper Allehande ( see here ).
The contemporary witness Tommy Sörstrand also reports on the many attempts to no longer treat homosexuality as an illness and ultimately names the occupation of the stairwell in the authority as an important point ( see unikaboxen.net ) during the Gay Liberation Week in August 1979.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, the Sharepic lags a little. No matter how great the theory may seem, it was probably only a small part of the protest that led to homosexuality no longer being listed as a mental illness in Sweden since 1979.
However, the occupation of the stairwell of the National Health and Social Services Office and Gay Liberation Week in August 1979 is sufficiently documented, so that one can speak of a crucial point here.
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