Per Østvold (born 1949)

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on July 25, 2025. While care has been taken to maintain accuracy, this translation has not yet undergone human review or validation. Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review. 

Østvold has been politically active on the Norwegian left since the early 1960s. At the same time, he has been a committed gay rights activist and a highly influential figure within the Norwegian trade union movement.

In our interview, Østvold shares memories of his upbringing in Østfold and how he became politically engaged at an early age. As a student in Oslo, he connected with other young radicals—and it was also during this time that he first encountered a queer community.

He later became involved in the AKP-ml movement and has since been active in the Socialist Left Party (SV). In the early 1970s, he began working at Linjegods, where he would go on to play a central role as a trade unionist.

An excerpt from the interview can be viewed in the window below. Here, Østvold recalls the reactions they received when they first set up a public stand for DNF-48 (later FRI).

The full interview is available at the Queer Archives (Skeivt arkiv), part of the Special Collections at the University Library in Bergen.
We met Per Østvold in Oslo, February 2018