Today I'm feeling a bit homosexual

On 19 October 1979, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, Socialstyrelsen, removed homosexuality from its classification of diseases. This ended an official classification that those affected had been fighting for years.

Same-sex love had been legal in Sweden for thirty-five years. But it was still considered an illness. Anyone living openly as homosexual could expect to be declared a medical case. So-called treatments could go as far as committal to an institution. Since the early seventies, the association RFSL had tried to get the classification removed – with letters, petitions and meetings. At first without success.

At the end of August 1979, activists chose a different approach. During the annual Liberation Week, around three dozen of them occupied the stairwell of the authority's building in Stockholm. They unfurled banners and prepared to stay for a week if necessary. To protect themselves at work, some called in sick to the insurance office. Their reason: they were feeling a bit homosexual today. One woman from Småland actually received sick pay as a result.

These calls later became legendary. The story is often told as if half of Sweden had called in sick with homosexuality. In fact, only a few people did. The calls accompanied the occupation and made it possible for some to take part at all.

The police turned up but did not intervene. Instead, Barbro Westerholm, who had taken over as head of the authority only a few months earlier, came into the stairwell. She sat down with the protesters, listened and agreed with them: homosexuality did not belong in a classification of diseases.

Seven weeks later, the entry was deleted. Formally, it was a change to a register. For those affected, it meant that the state no longer declared them ill simply because they were homosexual. The World Health Organization took this step only eleven years later.