Berit Stueland became Berit Moore later Berit Thornberry (1937 – 2012) was a Norwegian born activist for sex education and disability rights. She translated a copy of The Little Red Schoolbook into English which was declared obscene and with Megan du Boisson she founded the

Disablement Income Group The Disablement Income Group (DIG) was a British disability advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1965 in Godalming, Surrey. It is considered to be one of the first pan-impairment pressure groups in Britain, and was created to campaign for the in ...

Life

Stueland was born in the Norwegian port and city of

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

in about 1937. Her childhood was during the second world war and her father was a member of the Norwegian resistance. He was also a church minister and her mother was a teacher. In 1958 she decided to become an au pair in England and at a youth group she met her future husband, Brian Moore. They had two children and shortly after the second was born in 1961 she was given a diagnosis of

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. Megan du Boisson had also been given a similar diagnosis. Megan du Boisson and Moore wrote a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' on 22 March 1965. At the time, social security payments to disabled people depended on the cause of that impairment. People injured in war or in the workplace were entitled to significantly more support than the "civilian" disabled. Married women were very poorly served. The Disablement Income Group (DIG) was founded in 1965 by what was called two "housewives". The group's co-founder Megan du Boisson died in a car accident while driving to attend the 4th AGM of DIG. Du Boisson's role was taken by

Mary Greaves Mary Greaves (23 April 1907 – 16 January 1983) was a British civil servant and disability rights campaigner, who was instrumental in helping to pass the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Following the death of its founder Meg ...

. Her obituary reported that she had given the phrase "Does he take sugar?" to a BBC producer and this had then been used for the title long running radio programme about disability issues. She came to notice again when she translated a copy of The Little Red Schoolbook into English in 1970. It was published in 1971. The book as said to be seditious and was judged obscene as it dealt with sex and authority in an open way. During the seventies she married again and she was working with the charity Child Poverty Action Group.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stueland, Berit 1937 births 2012 deaths People from Bergen Norwegian disability rights activists Norwegian people with disabilities Norwegian women activists People with multiple sclerosis Norwegian activists with disabilities Sex education advocates