Karin Olofsdotter, the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, was part of the NGLCC conference’s “Beyond Borders: Succeeding in the Global Landscape” panel and discussed the Swedish government’s LGBTQ-equality efforts domestically and internationally.
“The Swedish Embassy is in close dialogue with the U.S. government, American LGBTIQ civil-society organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and LGBTIQ business representatives,” she said. “The Swedish government is very vocal on LGBTIQ rights and supports these rights globally. Human rights are on the forefront of our foreign policy with equality being right at the center.”
The embassy arranged a Twitter Town Hall together with Human Rights Campaign and other Nordic embassies earlier this summer to promote LGBTQ rights and inclusion, a campaign that reached close to 60 million people. In November, Olofsdotter and her staff will take part in the NGLCC’s third-annual Global LGBTI Business Week in Washington, D.C., to continue conversations about expanding global LGBTQ economic opportunities.
“When it comes to business, we have significant investments in the United States. Swedish economic ties with the U.S. have created about 500,000 jobs. Most of our big companies have production facilities here and find the U.S. market extremely important. It is one of our biggest markets outside the European Union and we’re looking to see how we can support the LGBTI economy here as well as back in Sweden.”