Egteskapets helselære (Marriage and Health Education)

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on May 20, 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 Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review.

In 1925, Kristiane Skjerve published the book Egteskapets helselære (Marriage and Health Education ).

Skjerve was a Christian educator. A few years earlier, she had published a handbook for girls on the body and sexuality, Sundhetslære for unge kvinder (Health Education for Young Women, 1916). The book was groundbreaking at a time when girls were expected to be shielded from knowledge about such topics.

In Egteskapets helselære, Skjerve refers to homosexuality as something abnormal, but not something that should be punished. She writes:

"There are people who are completely normal in every other way, but sexually abnormal. There are individuals with such abnormally strong drives that they become a danger to those around them. True homosexuals, who are drawn to individuals of their own sex with the full physical and emotional desire of a lover, are abnormal and suffer because of it. These abnormal individuals deserve compassion and society’s care—both for their own sake and for the sake of those around them. A pathological tendency of the soul is no more eradicated by punishment than a physical abnormality is.

This does not mean that everyone who deviates is necessarily abnormal, but it should be considered a possibility and treated accordingly, both within and outside of marriage.

Healthy, normal people of both sexes possess strong sexual drives, but these are subject to the control of will and reason—not meant to be eradicated or suppressed."
(Skjerve 1925: 70–71)

For more information about Kristiane Skjerve and her work on sex education, see Kvinnehistorie.no