LGBTIQ people’s rights and opportunities are on the agenda

The Government is developing a new action plan for LGBTIQ people’s rights and opportunities, and the aim is to consolidate, supplement and mobilise efforts in this area for 2024–2027.  

The Government is implementing a host of measures to strengthen LGBTIQ people’s equal rights and opportunities.

Violence, discrimination and other violations

On 20 June, the Government adopted an action programme to prevent and combat men’s violence against women, intimate partner violence and honour-based violence and oppression, all of which include LGBTIQ people. 

Information material: Short version: Free and safe without violence and oppression 

The action programme includes several measures that specifically emphasise LGBTIQ people’s situation. These include the following:

• The Swedish Gender Equality Agency has been tasked with surveying intimate partner violence and risk factors among LGBTIQ people. The Agency will analyse the need for measures aimed at both the target group and relevant professional groups and present proposals to advance future knowledge development.
• The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society has been tasked with conducting an in-depth analysis of the need for support initiatives for honour-based violence and oppression. This analysis will also include the risk of conversion therapy directed at young LGBTIQ people.
• Uppsala University (National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women) has been tasked with introducing an EU-harmonised support line offering support to people who have been subjected to i.e. intimate partner violence and honour-based oppression, including LGBTIQ people. This means that individuals can call a support line via the same telephone number from any EU Member State. 

Young LGBTIQ people

The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society will improve the conditions for creating and maintaining physical and digital meeting places for young LGBTIQ people. This assignment includes both by surveying current meeting places and by implementing skills training for various actors at municipal level. 

The Agency has also been tasked with carrying out measures to promote an open and inclusive environment in schools for young LGBTIQ people. This assignment has resulted in the Öppna skolan (Open up schools) education package, which comprises four online courses for school staff, pupils and guardians. 

The Swedish Gender Equality Agency has been tasked with supporting efforts to help young people who have been subjected to intimate partner violence. The Agency will develop, distribute and provide support material for practitioners and carry out measures to enhance skills. The Agency will also present proposals to improve efforts to prevent and expose intimate partner violence among young people. Exposure to violence in particularly vulnerable groups, including young LGBTIQ people, will be taken into account. 

Health and health care 

The Public Health Agency of Sweden has been tasked with surveying the current knowledge status and identifying knowledge gaps with respect to equal opportunities for health and living conditions and habits among LGBTIQ people. The Agency will investigate the underlying reasons why the conditions for health are unequal.

The National Board of Health and Welfare has been tasked with strengthening LGBTIQ skills in health and social care for older people. The Board will produce and distribute awareness-raising material on LGBTQ issues in connection with health and social care for older people.

The Board has also been tasked with implementing an information campaign targeting health and care professionals who encounter people with gender dysphoria in their work. The aim is to improve the way people with gender dysphoria are treated in health care. The Board will also improve the follow-up of trans-care and propose a method aimed at gaining a long-term overview of the prescription of puberty-blocking and cross-sex pharmaceuticals for people with gender dysphoria.