Our History

In 1981 in Jönköping, the first branch to get the name RFSL Jönköping was formed. A weekend in March 1984 Jönköping was filled by LGBTQ people from all over the country when that year’s RFSL congress was held in Jönköping.

In the beginning of the 1990s there was a crisis in the former RFSL Jönköping and the number of members dropped drastically. At the RFSL congress of 1993 in Stockholm the Federation board voted to exclude RFSL Jönköping, to put another organisation in its place, because the Federation Office had discovered some irregularities. After the voting, however, RFSL Jönköping was saved from exclusion by only one vote. Instead a mediation group was formed. In the winter of 1993 – 1994 even the mediation group were stuck in their negotiations with the Federation, and at the RFSL congress of March 1994 in Trollhättan the former branch of RFSL Jönköping was excluded unanimously by the congress. The excluded branch, with the then president in the lead, later formed an independent association “Smålands förbund för homosexuellas rättigheter, SFHR“ and an office was arranged in the former Folkets Hus in Jönköping. But SFHR never really got started and was dissolved completely a few years later.

In connection with the RFSL’s congress of 1994 in Trollhättan another decision was also made that concerned Jönköping. The Federation board elected a new branch that was named “RFSL Vätterstad”, with headquarters in Jönköping. During the previous winter this association had been planned by both new LGBTQ activists, the intended president and old members of the earlier excluded branch “RFSL Jönköping”. “RFSL Vätterstad“ gained momentum in the LGBTQ movement in Södra Vätterbygden. Premises both for organizational activities and administration were obtained at Västra Holmgatan 14, at Kålgårdsområdet in Jönköping and the number of members soon reached a hundred. In the spring of 1998 the circle was once again closed, when “RFSL Vätterstad” decided to reclaim the name “RFSL Jönköping”.

2003 RFSL Jönköping left the premises at Kålgårdsområdet in Jönköping in favor of new association premises at Norra Strandgatan 42 in Jönköping which were named “Club42“, and here RFSL Jönköping arranged different activities for the branch’s members for a little more than a decade. On September 28th 2013 the name “Club42” was changed to “G.I.B” (Gay Is Beautiful). But after the second half of 2014 the number of members decreased, and the branch was on and off without an active board and active members, and the premises was left completely unused. As the branch didn’t have an active board or active members that have been taken care of the branch’s economy, also the premises were finally left in june of 2015, in the absence of funds to continue to pay the rent and other fixed expenses. The material and documentation that was deemed valuable to save for the future and remaining funds were transferred to the Federation for safe keeping, until a new branch board would be elected to restart the branch again.

On March 12, 2017, a new board was again elected at a convened annual meeting organized by the Federation, which had the goal to bring RFSL Jönköping back again, and with the goal to seek support from members and other LGBTQI activists in the region. But after the extra annual meeting on April 14, 2019, RFSL Jönköping again became dormant in the absence of active members. The Federation called to an annual meeting on February 1, 2020 where a new board was elected to take over the work to start up the local branch, then Corona came so the work ended up on pause. In the spring of 2022, the federation made a mailing to listen about any local members who would like to get involved and get the department up and running again, a group had a digital meeting with the union and formed a working group that probed the possibility of getting started again, during the fall and winter of 2022 they had some little work meetings, but at the turn of the year 2023 it was concluded that there were not enough, a decision was made that the group would start meeting at Frimans in central Jönköping, posts were posted on social media that those who wanted to come could participate, in order to have a meeting place and reach out to more people. In November 2023, the federation organized an extra annual meeting at Kulturhuset Jönköping where an interim board was formed until the regular annual meeting and received training from the federation in December, in January a constituent meeting was held and in March 2024 the regular annual meeting was held where the board, audit, election committee were elected for the term of office until the next annual meeting 2025. The goal has been and is to network with other organizations and reach out and recruit members to bring in more local activists (members) who want to get involved in the local branch work to continue the work with the restart of the local branch.

RFSL Jönköping has previously worked actively for the rights of LGBTQ people for over 30 years. But the work on the LGBTQI issues is a project that still has to continue to be written on in the current Jönköping County Region by LGBTQI activists. The goal “That everyone should have the same rights and obligations” is a large project that still uses is also run locally and not just at the federal level.