This is a story that has cracked me up every time it's come up, and I would absolutely love to be able to do something like that. I hope it makes you laugh too.
So, to start, Sweden. They de-criminalized homosexual behavior (still don't understand why that needed to happen, but I'll leave that for another day) in 1944, so it was legal to be gay.
But it was still listed as a (mental) illness (don't understand that one either).
To rebel against that, people called in 'too gay to come to work' in 1979.
This was a more disruptive campaign than letter-writing or calling their politicians to protest, and actually got homosexuality to be reclassified. Unfortunately, a lot of people preferred to not risk getting labelled as 'gay' (hate crimes are awful, but impossible to avoid entirely) so there weren't nearly as many as people think there were when they share this lovely, but unfortunately over-estimated fact. It's awesome, and not unknown, but there were only about 40 people that did it, according to one source.
For those who don't like the LGBTQIA+ or the Rainbow Society or whatever you want to call it, be glad you aren't Swedish. Their version is 'Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights (RFSL) (In Swedish: Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas, transpersoners, queeras och intersexpersoners rättighter)' as I learned from the Global Society Article that is linked below.
I hope this made you laugh. I'll see you again tomorrow.
Sources:
Slate-- Calling in Gay to Work
Mental Floss-- The Time the Swede's Called in Gay
Taylor and Francis Library online-- Global Society-- I felt a little Homosexual today
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