Norway is one of the friendliest countries gay tourists can visit. People in this country treat gay tourists the same way they treat straight tourists. The capital city, Oslo, is one of the places in Norway that has a remarkably large percentage of gay people when contrasted with rural areas.
In this country there are also several gay-friendly events and places. The main gay events in Norway include the Raballder Sports Cup held in Oslo, the Scandinavian Ski Pride held in Hemsedal, Gay Week held in Trondheim, the Parodi Grand Prix held in Bergen, and of course the famous annual Festival of the Oslo Pride.
Rights
There are also several prominent figures from the gay public and celebrities in Norway. This means that gay rights are well envisaged in Norway and therefore people can make their decisions without suffering discrimination.
In Norway, gay tourists should not feel threatened by holding hands in public or even sharing a kiss. For the Norwegian people, these are normal activities that do not cause any alarm. As such, Norway is a great vacation destination for gay tourists and undoubtedly one of the most welcoming and open-minded. This is because the law there does not discriminate against the gay community. Norwegians recognize and respect the fact that different people have different sexual orientations and make different decisions.
Culture
In Norway, gay and lesbian people are not discriminated against in restaurants. They go to the same hotels and attend the same events as straight people. They live their private lives as heterosexual couples. However, there are hotels and events where tourists can find more gay people. Popular hangouts in Oslo include The Fincken club, as well as Bob’s Pub, Eisker, and a restaurant known as London.
Like many Scandinavian countries, Norway is very liberal when it comes to lesbian, bisexual and gay rights. It was the first country in the world to enact a law that protects homosexuals in certain areas. Intimate same-sex activities have been legal in Norway since 1972. The Norwegian government has set the legal age of marriage at 16 years, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Laws
In 2008, the Norwegian parliament passed a law allowing gay couples to marry and start their own families. This allows gay people to perform weddings similar to straight people and allows them to adopt children. The new law changed the meaning of civil marriage to make it gender neutral. Before this new same-sex marriage law, there was a partnership law that had existed since 1993. “Partnerskapsloven”, as the partnership law was known, granted same-sex couples the typical rights of marriage without necessarily referring to to him as a marriage.
Current laws allow gay couples in Norway to adopt children and raise them as heterosexual parents do. In a situation where the two couples are women and one of them has a child by artificial insemination, the other couple acts as a primary parent. This has made it possible for gay people to have families of their own.
