by Rex Wockner
Lesbians must be allowed to buy dogs, a Stockholm appeals court affirmed Feb. 11. A kennel owner in the Stockholm suburb of Vaermdoe, Anette Sjoeholm, had refused to sell a puppy to a lesbian, Smila Bergstroem, because Sjoeholm had read that transvestites are involved in animal pornography and she believed that made homosexuals untrustworthy. The court unanimously rejected Sjoeholm's defense, as did a lower district court, according to a report in the Stockholm publication The Local. Sjoeholm must pay Bergstroem $3,085 in damages for discrimination and harassment, and reimburse $6,940 to the state Ombudsman against Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation for its legal expenses.
