The haunting news of the Norwegian fundamentalist Christian terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik, gunning down and killing 68 people at an island summer camp is still fresh in many peoples’ minds. Recently, out of that tragedy, a heroic story of a married lesbian couple who bravely saved the lives of 40 teens is beginning to quietly emerge.
The Finnish capital city’s largest daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, published this account (translated from Finnish):
Hege Dalen and her spouse, Toril Hansen were near Utöyan having dinner on the opposite shore across from the ill-fated campsite, when they began to hear gunfire and screaming on the island.
“We were eating. Then shooting and then the awful screaming. We saw how the young people ran in panic into the lake,” says Dale to HS in an interview.
The couple immediately took action and pushed the boat into Lake Tyrifjorden.
Dalen and Hansen drove the boat to the island, picked up from the water victims in shock in, the young and wounded, and transported them to the opposite shore to the mainland. Between runs they saw that the bullets had hit the right side of the boat.
Since there were so many and not all fit at once aboard, they returned to the island four times.
They were able to rescue 40 young people from the clutches of the killer.
“We did not sleep last night at all. Today, we have been together and talked about the events,” Dalen said.
The International Business Times and other blogs have asked about why there hasn’t been more main stream press about this heroic couple. Talk About Equality blog has asks, “If a married lesbian couple saves 40 teens from the Norway Massacre and no one writes about it, did it really happen?”
Well, blogosphere, we at Queerty will happily take you up on that challenge. Glad to post about it.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Now, readers, you do your part to spread the word about this deserving couple!
kern
Bring tears to my eyes just from reading of their heroic act and the tragedy that’s still fresh from being forgotten.
xander
Remember that post about “fierce” being an over-used word nowadays? These two women ARE fierce, in fact, and I hope they get recognised for their bravery.
Wonderful story, @Tanner.
Christine Boyd
Let’s not focus on why the media didn’t put emphasis on this very heroic couple. Let’s look at how the author of this blog managed to do. Kudos to you pal! It’s such an inspirational story. 🙂
Michael DeSelms
This is so cool. My thoughts and prayers go out to these two lovely angels from Heaven. I, personally, will be doing everything in my power to see that these two ladies are fully recognised for their bravery.
Codswallop
Some people on websites like Gawker, even LGBTs, have questioned whether it’s necessary to identify them as a LESBIAN couple in headlines, which I think is just silly.
The main reason I want the story to get wider play is for its “Suck it, haters!” impact on US homophobes, especially in light of the mass-murderer being a right-wing Christian. So the only question for me is which presentation of the story best achieves that, a somewhat generic title that lures readers in with the heroic story THEN slaps them upside the head with a tale of dyke derring-do, OR the frontal assault of Married Norwegian Lesbian Couple Save Children, Showing More Courage Than Your Self-Righteous Bitch-Ass Will Ever Do. At least with the second fewer people will miss it.
Matt Smith
Once again lesbians to the rescue! I love my sisters.
JamieMcG
Thank you so much for sharing this story and for linking to our original post. It’s really exciting to see something like this go viral firsthand! Because of the nature of this story and for people like you sharing it, we’ve had over a half million people read this story on our site, 100,000 people shared it on Facebook and more than 8,000 blogs around the world have now shared it. People are taking notice of these heroes and it’s because of you sharing it. Thank you again!