This thesis focuses on public attitudes towards homosexuality in Sweden during the 1950s. It analyses four newspapers’ coverage of the conspiracy theories and the accusations aimed at government officials concerning homosexual freemasons, government corruption, and the authorities’ protection of those who were suspected of sexually abusing young men. Throughout the thesis, queer theory is used to understand the different ways in which homosexuality was stigmatized and how heterosexuality was upheld. The media discussion was sparked by two scandals, known as the “Kejne scandal” and the ”Haijby scandal”. The first one concerned a priest named Kejne that claimed that he was the victim of harassment from homosexual “freemasons”. The Haijby scandal concerned a man named Kurt Haijby that blackmailed the Swedish court by threatening to publicize a homosexual relationship he claimed to have had with King Gustav V. 

The four newspapers that I have examined are Dagen (conservative Christian), Stockholms-tidningen, Expressen (both liberal) and Arbetaren (syndicalist). My result shows that the newspapers view of homosexuality aligned with their political bias, although in unexpected ways. When it concerned the Kejne scandal the syndicalist newspaper Arbetaren, tended to link homosexuality to upper-class elites, painting a picture of a dangerous homosexual group deeply embedded in corrupt government power. Both liberal newspapers agreed on the existence of an elite group of homosexual “freemasons”, but saw the solution as laying in government action. The Christian Dagen was least paranoid about homosexuality per se, portraying the majority of homosexuals not as part of a conspiracy but as individuals that were victims of a disease. Homosexual relationships were, in the newspapers’ coverage of the Kejne scandal bluntly portrayed. When it came to the Haijby scandal, all four of the newspapers suddenly became, in comparison, more careful. Suspicions about homosexual relationships in the coverage of the Haijby scandal were implied, but rarely explicitly mentioned.