A policy brief written by Onur Kilic (2025) on the article "Problematizing the secular/religion divide: Religion as the Other in contemporary discourses on LGBTQIA+ rights in Sweden" by Mia Liinason & Elin Lundell (2025) published in Journal of Gender Studies. You can download the policy brief here and read the article itself here.
In Sweden, a growing divide between secularism and religion is reflected in state policies and media debates. This development introduces complexities into discourse on LGBTQIA+ rights as well as the lived experiences of queer religious communities in Sweden. Recent debates surrounding state-commissioned investigations (SOU:er) on so-called “conversion attempts” and state funding of religious organisations serve as a case in point, illustrating how religion is portrayed as “the Other”. Religion is positioned as inherently oppressive toward queer lives, in contrast to secular modernity, which is equated with progressive values that embrace queerness. From this vantage point, Mia Liinason and Elin Lundell, in their recent article in the Journal of Gender Studies, titled “Problematizing the secular/religion divide: Religion as the other in contemporary discourses on LGBTQIA+ rights in Sweden”, examine how the secular/religious divide marginalises queer religious communities. They argue that this binary oversimplifies complex lived experiences and obscures the inherent restrictive role of cis-heteronormativity in disciplining queer bodies across both secular and religious spheres. The recent state policies tend to problematise the role of religions that are positioned as external to secularism (shaped by Lutheranism) in relation to LGBTQIA+ rights, pressuring religious communities to align with “Swedish democratic values”. This creates a rigid view in which secularism is seen as the safeguard of LGBTQIA+ rights and democracy, while religious communities are cast as its opposite. However, the relationship between religious communities and conversion attempts remains complex and unclear. Critical approaches to the secular/religious divide can help create religious spaces that welcome queer people and queer spaces that embrace religiosity based on a dialogue between state actors, religious communities, and LGBTQIA+ organisations.
Increasingly racist and anti-immigrant policies
Stronger religious pluralism
Neoliberal reconfigurations
Although Sweden is frequently recognised as an LGBTQIA+ friendly society, the changing dynamics of secularism and religion complicate this image, revealing challenges at both policy level and in the everyday life of queer communities. Previous research illustrates how state actors have employed homonationalist discourses to instrumentalise their queer populations – equating queerness with Swedish secular values that are inextricably linked to racist and anti-immigrant policies. This strategy has paved the way for the culturalisation of “Other” religions, particularly Islam, which is perceived as hostile to secular queerness (Kehl 2018; Liinason 2023; Hägerbäck and Norocel 2024). Second, the debates on conversion attempts have led to the politicisation of religion, both by portraying it as a resource to gain political achievements or as a problem in need of legal control (Hjelm 2014). Third, while Swedish secularism has been heavily influenced by Lutheran Christianity and characterised by state regulation of religious activities, there has been a shift toward financially supporting a diverse range of religious organisations (Asad 2003). This shift is tied to neoliberal reconfigurations of the state’s role in Sweden over the last forty years, during which religious organisations have become part of the privatisation and deregulation process (Wejryd and Bäckström 2016; Furseth 2018).
“When the problem of conversion attempts is tackled as a problem of religion, rather than a problem of cis-heteronormativity, the divide between religion and secularism grows deeper.” (Liinason and Lundell, 2025, p. 9)
The analysis underpinning this policy brief employs a multi-scalar methodology that integrates macro-level policy and media discourse with meso-level civil society actions and micro-level accounts of everyday lived experiences of queer religious people. By examining state-commissioned investigations (SOU:er) on conversion attempts alongside the media debate on the topic, and in-depth interviews with 28 queer religious individuals from diverse religious backgrounds, the research reveals that current policies tend to equate conversion attempts with religion and isolate them from the broader context of cis-heteronormativity. While the notion of conversion attempts is used to justify stricter regulation of religious organisations, similar forms of cis-heteronormative pressure are visible in secular institutions such as schools and healthcare settings, which are not subjected to the same regulations. Moreover, the lived experiences of religious queers show that anti-religious racisms such as Islamophobia and antisemitism are prevalent both in their daily lives and in the queer spaces they participate in. These insights collectively call for an urgent need to problematise the secular/religious divide in queer politics and to create spaces that are inclusive of both queerness and religion.
Given the turbulent relationship between secularism, religion, and queerness in Sweden, this research recommends recognising the complexity of religion as lived and practiced by queer people. Rather than a reductive culturalisation and politicisation of religion as inherently opposed to presumably secular queer values, it is important to highlight the multiple scales of interaction between religion and queerness. Encouraging the establishment of queer-inclusive and religiously affirmative spaces – whether through grassroots community initiatives, alliances between religious groups and LGBTQIA+ organisations, or other forms of collaboration – can help bridge the secular/religious divide and mitigate the effects of anti-religious racism. Furthermore, policymakers could focus on the role of cis-heteronormativity as pervasive in both secular and religious contexts, rather than declaring religion to be solely responsible for such oppression. This is crucial, as such an approach has devastating implications and risks further marginalising queer religious communities while fuelling anti-religious racisms in Sweden.
Asad, T. (2003). Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity. Stanford University Press.
Furseth, I. (Ed.). (2018). Religious complexity in the public sphere: Comparing Nordic countries. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55678-9
Hjelm, T. (2014). Understanding the new visibility of religion: Religion as problem and utility. Journal of Religion in Europe, 7(3–4), 203–222. https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-00703011
Hägerbäck, F., & Norocel, C. O. (2024). Migration and welfare: Differential grievabilities in the Swedish right-wing continuum. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 14(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.33134/njmr.678
Kehl, K. (2018). ‘In Sweden, girls are allowed to kiss girls, and boys are allowed to kiss boys’: Pride Järva and the inclusion of the ‘LGBT other’ in Swedish nationalist discourses. Sexualities, 21(4), 674–691. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717748621
Liinason, M. (2023). “The loved home” and other exclusionary care discourses. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 22(3), 1047–1067. https://doi.org/10.7202/1102112ar
Liinason, M., & Lundell, E. (2025). Problematizing the secular/religion divide: Religion as the Other in contemporary discourses on LGBTQIA+ rights in Sweden. Journal of Gender Studies, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2025.2493262
Wejryd, A., & Bäckström, A. (2016). Sedd men osedd: Om folkkyrkans paradoxala närvaro inför 2020-talet. Verbum.