Europeans are so liberal.  I remember hearing that Europeans are liberal since middle school.  Women in France don’t shave their armpits or legs.  Marijuana is legal in Amsterdam.  Did you ever hear about a gay part of a forest in Norway-with lots of bird feeders? 

I lived in the outskirts of Oslo for 8 months and it wasn’t until shortly before I left that I discovered something that at the time seemed extremely odd, but after an explanation and some thought is actually really cool. 

Almost every day I would run up the hill to Sognsvann, a small lake on the edge of the forest.  I would usually stick to the trail that surrounded the lake, but in the summer it was nice to venture off the beaten path.  One day I put my suit on and brought a towl and a book into the forest a bit and found a nice place to relax completely in tune with nature.  There were what looked like bird feeders every hundred feet.�
I was truly living a Norwegian lifestyle.  Although I felt I had privacy, I would see pairs of men every once in a while.  Walking on the path below or laughing somewhere in the distance behind me.  I started to wonder where the ladies were?  Maybe I was the fool who was the only female out in the woods.  I should have known better than to wander off by myself in a foreign country.  I certainly wouldn’t do that at home if I were in a semi-populated area. 

After I braved another hour or so enjoying the blissfull summer day, I got back on the path and headed to civilization.  There were males in front of me and males behind.  Every once in a while I saw 2 men literally pop out of the woods.  Maybe on foot, maybe on bikes.  Men and more men.  I was thoroughly confused but had an inkling that maybe I entered an area that I knew nothing about, and it was an area that everyone should know about.

The next day I asked middle-aged nurse at the university if she knew what the deal was with that part of the forest.  She answered me in Norwegian, “Oh yeah, that’s the gay part of the forest” so casually that I wasn’t sure she had any idea how weird that sounded to me.  She asked me if I noticed any bird feeders.  I said “Yeah, actually, there were quite a few of them!”  She then explained that these were not bird feeders.  “Those are condom dispensers.” 

It was at that moment that it really hit me how liberal Europeans are.  Of course not all European countries would support such an arrangement, but in general, Europe is a very socially liberal place.  Can you imagine the same situation in Washington DC?  A gay part of mall that supplies protection to homosexual men?  Hardly.  I never found out who paid for and set up the dispensers (a GLBT group, the government, a medically-based group?), but I do know that it’s something most people in the city are aware of.  And I don’t believe there have ever been complaints about it. 

If this idea makes you uncomfortable, be aware that if you are in the depths of the forest and you see a random birdfeeder, check if there are birds inside. 

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