Ombudsman against Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation (Sweden)

The Ombudsman against Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation (Swedish: Ombudsmannen mot diskriminering på grund av sexuell läggning), also called the Swedish Ombudsman against Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and normally referred to as HomO, was the Swedish office of the ombudsman against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. On January 1, 2009, it was merged with other ombudsman officers into the new Discrimination Ombudsman.

HomO was the most recently instituted Swedish ombudsman, in the sense of a government official who addresses the complaints of individual citizens. HomO had the status of a government agency. In 2005 it received around 8 million SEK in government funding.

The term HomO is used both to refer to the office, currently with a staff of seven, and as the title of its government-appointed acting head, HomO Hans Ytterberg, who was the only head of the office while it existed. HomO was the officially mandated short form, but is not a true acronym or abbreviation. Instead the word alludes to both homo = homosexual and to traditional Swedish ombudsman abbreviations which do expand into descriptive terms, such as JämO = JämställdhetsOmbudsmannen (Equality Ombudsman).

HomO investigated the grievances of individuals and files class action suits on their behalf, for example a recently successful action against a restaurant owner in Stockholm who had harassed a couple of lesbians. The HomO office also took a number of initiatives of its own and submitted parliamentary proposals, most recently for a gender neutral marriage act.

In addition to this government office, the merger that created the Discrimination Ombudsman office involved the offices of Equality Ombudsman, Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination and Disability Ombudsman.

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