Oslo Norway

Norway's capital, Oslo, is a destination that both includes nature and outdoor recreation, as well as clubs and bars. It's very paradoxical in many ways. While every few blocks you will find a small park, you will also find a club on every corner. Oslo promotes both of these lifestyle.

Oslo, Norway, also promotes a different kind of lifestyle. They admittedly are encouraging homosexuals to continue, and be proud of, their decision to lead that kind of life. On the Oslo visitor's website their promotional video was clearly encouraging homosexual couples to come to a country, and city, that not only will accept them - but cater to them.

The visitor's website not only had lists of local fjords, ski resorts, beaches, restaurants (both traditional Scandinavian and Norwegian), the royal palace, shops and parks. They also had a Gay Calendar, a list of local gay bars and clubs with their appropriate slogan (such as "a club for girls who likes girls"), and also a list of their annual promotional homosexual holidays and festivals.

I admit, I was taken aback and disturbed by how much they were promoting - or pushing - the homosexual lifestyle. There is a difference between tolerating and encouraging. Tolerating means not to hate the person, hate the ideas. That way you can disagree whole heartily, but it doesn't become a hateful bombardment upon an individual. However, they weren't just making sure that the world knew they would tolerate, or even accept, that lifestyle...they would encourage  it.

Curious to see where we, as America, is on the tolerance versus encouragement spectrum, I visited San Francisco's official visitor's website. I wanted to see if we had made it to the point where we were pushing this lifestyle, like Norway, on sites that should be relatively free from tendentious material. I was shocked to find that we were even worse. On the home page the slogan "The city that practically invented gay." read proudly and boldly. After doing a quick search for the word "gay" on the website, I received 81 results that included: specialty shops, restaurants, clubs, bars, landmarks that would appeal to gays, local events, hotels,  holidays and festivals, etc.

Have we become a country that isn't happy with just tolerating differences? Must we, like Norway, begin to put pressure on others to agree  with the differences?

I thought Norway was headed for trouble...then I looked at us.

Some general information about Norway just because it's fun:

Site Seeing: fjords, mountains, beaches, skiing, capitol, wilderness and safari tours, arctic

Climate: ranges from 30* Celsius and -40* Celsius

Bodies of Water:  Gulf of Bothnia, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Skagerrak, Norweigen Sea, Vestfjodre, Barents Sea. Rivers: Angermanaleven, Skellefetealven, Lulleafven, Tornealven. Lakes: Inar, Oulujarvi, Pielinen, Vanern

Fauna: elk, moose, foxes, deer, badgers, owls, hawks, mice, wolverines, lynxes, etc

Flora: twenty-seven percent of Norway is forests

Changes in Population: Norway started out only having just over 400,000 people. By 2012 the population rose to five million.

Soil: They are worried about contamination, due to lack of proper disposal from factories, as well as, landfills and mining.