(Language of the event Swedish/English)

 ❗  Possibly triggering content: Sexual abuse, violence.

Same-sex sexual acts were forbidden until 1944 in Sweden, for both women and men. No women were prosecuted in Malmö but a large number of men. Through court records and police reports, we can reconstruct gay men's subculture in Malmö during the first half of the 20th century: where they met, how they socialised and also how they thought about themselves and their sexual orientation. The lecture focuses on how transgender expressions were part of the early gay subculture, and how prostitution, extortion and trips to Copenhagen were also part of the picture. It was a hard life and many suffered from the condemnation of the surrounding society, but there was also room for true love. Jens Rydström is a professor of gender studies at Lund University and has researched queer history during the 19th and 20th centuries. He has published many books on the history of sexuality and is the author of Sinners and citizens: Bestiality and homosexuality in Sweden, 1880-1950 (University of Chicago Press 2003) and Odd couples: A history of gay marriage in Scandinavia (University of Amsterdam Press 2011).