- Arm's length distance from culture absolutely ceases to apply when directly perverted material is not kept at arm's length from children, said Jonathan Sager (SD), member of the Kalmar city council, in an interview with Kulturnyheterna on Thursday where he also draws parallels between drag queens and Nazism.
Robert Hannah (L) is very critical of Sager's statements.
- I don't believe in rhetoric that makes drag queens more vulnerable in society.
It's a group that already gets a lot of crap for just being themselves and practicing their art form, he says.
However, he defends the government's cooperation with the Sweden Democrats and emphasizes that it is stated in the Tidö agreement that arm's length distance must apply.
"Deeply disrespectful comparison with neo-Nazism"
The RFSL is also very critical and believes that the idea that children need to be protected from drag queens is a homophobic and transphobic mindset that signals that it is not desirable to be an LGBTQI person.
Peter Sidlund Ponkala, vice chairman of the RFSL, also reacts to the parallel Jonathan Sager draws between drag queens and Nazism:
"The comparison made with neo-Nazis is deliberately provocative and deeply disrespectful because it is not unusual for LGBTQI people to be subjected to hate crimes by people with connections to the violent right-wing extremist movement.
This SD politician's statements work against an open and democratic society," he writes in an email to Kulturnyheterna.
"Remarkable"
Lawen Redar, cultural policy spokesperson for the Social Democrats, is also concerned by the statements:
"Sager's comments are truly remarkable and they are not in line with the tradition of respect for the distance between politics and culture that we have in Sweden.
It is very worrying that we have a government foundation that wants to step in and decide on the content of culture.
The responsibility now lies with the government and the minister of culture to ensure that the motto of arm's length distance is maintained, it is fundamental for our democracy," she writes to Kulturnyheterna.
Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand (M) declines to comment on Sager's statements.
Even Bo Broman, cultural policy spokesperson for the Sweden Democrats, refrains from commenting and refers to an earlier statement in which he writes, among other things, that: "It is not our task at the national level to involve ourselves in local cultural phenomena.".
See the interview with Robert Hannah (L) in the clip above.