Spikersuppa, Rådhuset | Here is Oslo’s new rainbow square: – Right in the heart of the city!
– HURRA!
City councilor Rina Mariann Hansen (Labor Party) and city council representative Jon Reidar Øyan (Labor Party) come running towards the statue of Henrik Wergeland in Spikersuppa.
Øyan has been looking forward to this day for over three years, when he suggested that Oslo should have a «rainbow place». An entire city council voted in favor, and now it has finally been decided where the place will be.
The official opening of the square will be April 21st. The day marks 50 years since the penal code as criminalized sexual intercourse between men was repealed by the Storting.
Visibility, openness and diversity
– For Oslo, I think it is the big, important markings of the day. I am glad that we got this in place by then, says City Councilor Rina Mariann Hansen (Labor).
Almost three years after the city council representative Jon Reidar Øyan (Labor Party) proposed that Oslo should have a “rainbow place”, it has been decided where the place should be.
– The city council is now naming this part of Spikersuppa for the rainbow square, confirms city council Hansen.
The square is located to the left of the large statue of Wergeland when looking towards the Castle, just below the National Theater.
Øyan himself is very happy that the city council decided that the place should be in Spikersuppa, where Pride Park also holds every year.
– There are many things that are important here. In this space we get visibility, openness and diversity. It must be shown in the picture, and when the tourists come to Oslo they must see that this is a diverse city. But it should also be something to think about for all those who have dedicated their lives to a large or small degree to take on the gay struggle. Many of them are dead today. So it must also be a time for reflection.
Want flagpole – and big flag
In the middle of the interview, mayor Marianne Borgen (SV) happens to pass by. Øyan and Hansen are in the process of laying out how the space should be transformed with outdoor furniture, carpet and flower beds in rainbow colors.
Øyan is quick to launch another proposal for Borgen.
– I hope we can get a flagpole with rainbow flags that fly 365 days a year.
The three are the only ones that there will be little time to get a flagpole for the opening on 21 April. Mayor Borgen still says:
– Maybe the flag can be ready for the Pride party in June.
The castle also promises she will be at the opening in April to cut a string.
Øyan is clear that he thinks the opening itself must be “a little grandiose and stasis”.
– Because I believe that every big city with respect for itself must have a rainbow place. Copenhagen has got it, Bergen has got it and now we are opening in Oslo this spring. It’s over at the time when we were ashamed, now it’s openness and pride that counts.
Symbol-heavy location
City Councilor Hansen says there are several reasons why the city council chose this particular place.
– It is a combination of the fact that it is where the party is, but also that it is located between the Storting, the castle and the town hall. It has been, and continues to be, central to the gay struggle to move the laws. That’s why it’s right to have a place here.
Øyan wants the square to show that Oslo is a city of and for everyone.
– I was in Copenhagen last year and was on the rainbow square and saw the flag there, and it did something to me. Think what it does to the 12-year-old who thinks that he might be a little different than he goes to class to see that here we are integrated, here it is a flag and here I am welcome.
– Maybe he can feel that it is not so bad anyway, says Øyan.
ALSO READ:
Also read
72 «unwanted incidents» in Oslo football last year: – Our biggest challenges are not violence
Also read