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NorwayMarried couple Toril Henson and Hege Dalen have been praised for their bravery as they rushed to save teenagers off Utoya Island when Anders Brehring Breivik opened fire two weeks ago. They successfully rescued 40 teenagers.


The couple were having dinner across from the island when they heard shots and screaming.

They noticed people running in to Lake Tyrifjorden. In an act of immense courage they jumped in their boat and made for the island.

They crossed the island four times to save injured and terrified teenagers, while shots ricocheted off their boat.

Dalen commented to Helsingen Sanomat, a Danish newspaper, “We were eating. Then shooting and then the awful screaming. We saw how the young people ran in panic into the lake.”

While other acts of courage emerge after the massacre, the couple’s story remains largely unreported.

Talk about Equality, an LGBT Blog states: “If a married lesbian couple saves 40 teens from the Norway massacre and no-one writes about it, did it really happen? … The heavy hitters who usually kill for hero stories like this have remained silent.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Chivers also questions the silence over the couple: “Have the media ignored a gold-plated tale of bravery and heroism just because they don’t like the sexual orientation of the protagonists? I don’t know, obviously.”

“But it’s not as though it’s just traditionally minded, conservative news organisations, who might be expected to have misgivings about homosexual marriage, which have not reported on Mrs Hansen and Mrs Dalen’s heroism.”

Breivik has confessed to killing 77 people on the island and in Oslo on July 22nd.

He surrendered when confronted by police and is in custody.

 

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