Stefan died by AIDS – now the Pride flag is swaying in the hometown

Along the car road that winds through the village of Sattajärvi in ​​the Tornedalen Valley, a rainbow flag is swaying on the horizon. The flag belongs to the couple Eva Rova and Per Johansson. The flag hangs there year -round as a memory of Per Johansson’s brother Stefan.

– The Pride flag means everything. It stands for human rights and everyone’s equal value, says Eva Rova.

On the snow -capped ground, Per and his siblings have run since they were small. Here was the parent house used to be, when the village was slightly larger. Today, just over a hundred people are written in Sattajärvi. Now a clear yellow villa is on the site. Eva Rova and Per Johansson welcome into the heat.

Eva is presenting A photograph with white framing on the kitchen table. In the picture is Stefan with messy hair and a wide smile.

– He was the best in the world, so kind and liked all the people, she says.

Per Johansson was seven years older than his brother. Little brother had a tough time in school, he says:

– He was bullied. He was not like other guys, but he had other interests, and it wasn’t really accepted.

Eva Rova and Per Johansson became a couple when they were young. When she started visiting the home in Sattajärvi, she and Stefan quickly became close.

– He became my best friend. We loved playing games together and we used to bake together.

Stefan felt early on That he could not stay in the village if he could live his life fully, they say. As soon as he left high school, he moved to Stockholm to train in psychiatry. In Stockholm he also found love and married his husband.

But in 1986, the family received a message that changed everything. Stefan had been told that he was HIV positive.

-It went fast when his AIDS disease broke out in 1989. We knew it was a death sentence, says Eva Rova.

In a short time changed Stefan to unrecognizability, they say. The hospital staff called several times and asked them to come down to Stockholm with the flight from Kiruna to say goodbye to him.

– I remember when we were visiting him. Everyone was terrified, he says.

In December 1990, Stefan, 27 years old.

Almost 25 years after Stefan died, Tornedalen’s first pride train was arranged through Pajala. Aftonbladet then wrote that over 800 people participated.

– It felt like the municipality became more open with the train, says Eva Rova.

But during the winter In 2021 a post was spread on Facebook. A Christian Democratic local politician urged parents to think an extra time before letting their children accompany the school in Korpilombolo at a theater to be shown in Pajala. The performance, which was to be shown, had a youth theme with LGBTQI features. The incident was reported to the Ombudsman for Justice but the notification was closed.

It became the drop for the couple.

– Then I thought: It’s been over thirty years since Stefan died, we haven’t come anymore?, Says Per Johansson.

They looked out on the flagpole in the yard, thinking that it would probably have fit with a pride flag on the sixteen meter long rod. Said and done – shortly thereafter, the rainbow flag was swaying in the sky.

– It looks good, we live on a straight line, says Per Johansson.

But an early spring morning last year they looked out over the farm. The flag was not where it used to be. Per Johansson could see wheel tracks on the driveway and footprints in the snow up to the flagpole. On the ground lay their pride flag.

– I said our flag had gone down but Eva said: Per, it has not come down, someone has taken it down, says Per Johansson.

The event became one New in local media and on social media. A few days later there was a package in their mailbox, with a new flag, says Eva Rova.

– It was from a girl who had lived here in Pajala who had moved to Stockholm for the same reason as Stefan. She had read about us in the newspaper.

Eva Rova and Per Johansson last year received Norrbotten’s Pride Prize, instituted by RFSL, because they stood up for LGBTQI people and spread the message of the rainbow flag.

A few months later, the organizers of the QX gala who wanted the couple from Sattajärvi to come to Stockholm to receive the honorary award. In early February, the couple stood on the stage at Circus, where Eva said:

– Getting this award makes us so proud and we know that Stefan is also proud up there in his sky.

The reactions to both The constantly raised Pride flag that prices have been fine, they say. They believe that the flag has made many people feel seen but also helped to open society around.

– We have helped even older people up here can feel that it is okay to say « I have a gay girl and she is married, » says Eva Rova and continues:

– There was a letter the other day in which a man wrote that he went to Stockholm several years ago for the same reason as Stefan. He wrote that he lacks his hometown every day down in the big city.

What do you think Stefan had said about all publicity?

– Stefan would probably think it was nice that his story would mean that people gain more knowledge and stop looking at homosexuals like they are strange, says Eva Rova.

The Pride flag will be waving in the wind outside the house as long as the couple lives. They hope that the flag and their work can help the Tornedalen, or really all of Sweden, becoming more inclusive.

– I have said many times that everyone who has a flagpole, put a pride flag at the top, says Per Johansson.