Norwegians chasing Swedes thjrough the wjeeds in rush to create a gender neutral pronoun

When I was a child, my grandmother taught me a little song causing me to be forever believing the myth of Norwegian superiority. It went like this, 

"Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds,
chased by one Norwegian.
Ten thousand more ran to the shore
in the battle of Copenhagen."

Alas, the myth has been busted with the recent news that Norway is considering adding a third gender to government documents, and not only that, they are following Sweden's example! My grandmother would be shocked to learn of the "Swedenization" of her ancestral home.

The article, "Could Norway follow Sweden’s lead and introduce a third gender?", appeared at The Local, Norway's news in English on 6 February 2017,   

Could Norway follow Sweden’s lead and introduce a third gender? 

The leader of Labour's youth wing said that Norwegians should be able to identify themselves whoever they want in their passports and other official documents.Norway’s Labour Party, the largest party in parliament, will consider backing the introduction of a third gender, broadcaster NRK reported.Labour’s programme committee will debate the introduction of the third gender category so that Norwegians would no longer need to define themselves as male or female in their passports and other official documents.

A third gender? That seems so unfair to all the other possible gender identities out there. Facebook has identified 58 gender options (see list here).

Norway may ignore all those alternative identities and follow Sweden's example by coming up with one "generic" category.

Although the proposal is only under the early stages of consideration, Labour committee member Mani Hussaini suggested that Norway should follow the lead of neighbouring Sweden, which adopted the gender neutral pronoun ‘hen’ into official use in April 2015. 

"Hen" would not work in English speaking countries for obvious reasons. Immigration officials might have a bit of a problem as well figuring out how to classify a new arrival, and maybe that is why Norway is doing this. Perhaps Norwegian customs agents are seeing a few "hens" come across the border and the agents are being put in the awkward position of asking if they are a "han" or a "hun",

Hussaini, who is the leader of Labour's youth wing AUF, said ‘hen’ could also be used in Norwegian as a gender-neutral alternative to ‘han’ (he) and ‘hun’.

 Around here, "Hon" (short for Honey) is used in a gender neutral context.

The most revealing quote is the following,

“I believe that all people should be allowing to live out their identity and thus the law should adapt to reality rather than the other way around,” Hussaini said. 

"The law should adapt to reality" is exactly the same reasoning used by the Episcopal organization's progressive leaders to change its doctrines on divorce, remarriage, and same-sex marriage. This will also be the reasoning for gender neutral language in new liturgies that are to be put forward as prayer book revision moves forward.

We can blame it all on those cowardly Swedes who made it official two years ago.

The Swedish Academy agreed to include ‘hen’ in its official dictionary, Svenska Akademiens ordlista, in 2015.

Red Stangland who placed Minnesota Norwegian humor on the map may have to re-write his version of "The Battle of Copenahgen" which went like this,

Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds,
chased by one Norwegian.
Ten thousand more ran to the shore
in the battle of Copenhagen.

Way, way back in history,
back when the world was new,
norwegian searched all over,
to find some snoose to chew.

They fished for Lutefisk and Torsk,
it helped to make them strong,
and you and me, we know a Norsk,
cannot do nothing wrong.

But swedes and danes were envious
of Viking trips and raids.
The Viking shields and helmet horns,
made all those folks affraid.

Throughout the world the Vikings sailed,
to Ireland and to France.
The even found America,
one afternoon by chance.

My grandpa says, and he should know,
the swedes made up the minds.
To beat the Norsky Vikings,
and kick a few behinds.

But history, so grandpa says,
show that the Norskies won.
They clobbered all the swedes and danes,
and made it lots of fun.

Ten thousand swedes ran through the weeds,
chased by one norwegian.

The dust from the weeds,
made snoose for the swedes,
and they called it Copenhagen,

E. C. Stangland