and the lord said: «let the girls kiss...»
well, not the lord lord, perhaps, but indeed sweden's head HomO (i.e., homosexuella ombudsmannen*, sweden's ombudsman against sexual discrimination), hans ytterberg, who's just won 50,000 crowns (us$7,500) in damages and legal costs for two lesbians, anna fernström and susanne gustafsson, who in 2003 were thrown out of fridhem (house of peace) restaurant by [turkish?] owner, aziz çakır, after they kissed. an earlier court ruling had cleared the restaurant owner of sexual discrimination, a charge that can result in a year in jail. çakır had pleaded that he did not let anyone engage in such behaviour on his premises regardless of sexual orientation. yeah, sure, aha...well, the appeals court found the restaurant failed to prove [the] «two girls behaved in a way that would justify telling them to stop or telling them to leave the premises». additionally, mr ytterberg told reuters that «the court of appeals has made it clear that discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation is a serious violation of people's rights and can cost you dearly... this will hopefully function as an effective deterrent».
*ombudsmannen mot diskriminering på grund av sexuell läggning.
note: hans ytterberg is associate judge of appeal and former head of the Swedish Federation for Gay and Lesbian Rights (Riksförbundet för Sexuellt Likaberättigande or RFSL). visit this page at the swedish institute for further details and a most interesting article by jens rydström.
via yahoo! news and the rfsl.
