Sweden’s worst dressed woman is a splash of red color in the political darkness
Dagen ETC’s founder and owner Johan Jenny Ehrenberg is a splash of red color in a dark political age. On a Friday in 2009, Johan Ehrenberg paints his nails in blue and pink, the colors of the trans flag. He walks with them deep in his pockets on the town, not ready to answer questions, but still wanting to celebrate. The Riksdag has just confirmed that transsexuality is not a disease.
Now the hands are out of the pockets and Ehrenberg has become himself even on paper. It took three minutes and SEK 250 to complete the name change on the Tax Agency’s website. Now the left-wing newspaper ETC’s founder and owner Johan Jenny Ehrenberg has come out as trans.
Exactly 40 years ago, Ehrenberg made an attempt. She appeared on television under the name Jenny, was photographed in women’s clothing by the photographer Hatte Stiwenius – and named “Sweden’s worst dressed woman”. Since then, those who remember have dismissed it as fake or a joke, writes Johan Jenny.
“Now that’s over,” Johan Jenny Ehrenberg declared.
“It is easier to come out as trans now than it was 40 years ago, she notes. But not easy. There is still an argument about whether drag queens should be allowed to read fairy tales to children in libraries. Transgender people are desperately overrepresented in suicide statistics.”
“Drag Race Sweden” certainly went on SVT during prime time. The host Robert Fux has said that he wanted it in public service to show that there is something for everyone. But SVT also broadcasts documentaries such as “Transkriget”, which has been accused of being seriously negative towards trans people.
Leading feminists question trans people and see them as a threat. Even Annika Strandhäll (S) has regretted the gender identity law she fought for as social minister. Making it easier to change legal gender would turn to the possibility of keeping important statistics about gender equality, Strandhäll thinks.
And that is in progressive Sweden. Around the world it is often worse. Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of Russia banned the entire LGBTQ movement, for example. You can do that in a dictatorship. The LGBTQ movement is dangerously extremist and its representatives are no longer allowed to organize activities or demonstrations. It is dark.
“Every day, for over fifty years, I have gotten up and dressed as a man,” writes Johan Jenny Ehrenberg in Dagens ETC. But not anymore. The lipstick is back on.
A red clique in an increasingly dark age. In fact, everything does not get worse.