The US Ambassador to Sweden is concerned about developments in the United States.

Picture 1 of 10
Erik Ramanathan has long been a regular visitor to Sweden.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 2 of 10
Erik Ramanathan in his home in Diplomatstaden. The first time he was in Stockholm, he came with a backpack, lived in a hostel and danced under Stockholm’s bridges until dawn. It’s a long time ago now.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 3 of 10
Erik Ramanathan has for a few years changed his home in Boston to Diplomatstaden in Stockholm. “I have been doing different things during my career, but all the time I have been fighting for social justice. Isn’t most things better than when I started? Yes. Is it frustrating for an activist that such great challenges remain? Obvious.”

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 4 of 10
Erik Ramanathan describes himself as a social and extrovert – a person who likes to talk and who often laughs. He was appointed ambassador to Sweden last winter by President Joe Biden, but this is not the first time he has been to Sweden. He has been visiting the country for 30 years.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 5 of 10
The ambassador’s husband Ranesh Ramanathan came to the United States from Singapore to study. The couple had to fight for many years for him to stay. Ranesh Ramanathan was one of the first to be granted asylum in the United States because of his sexual orientation.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 6 of 10
Promoting contacts between business and culture in the US and Sweden is part of an ambassador’s task – Erik Ramanathan listens and asks questions during a company visit to Uppsala.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 7 of 10
Erik Ramanthan has been active in the fight for LGBTQI rights since he himself came out in his late teens. He became responsible for the movement during his time as a medical student at Johns Hopkins, a long-established academic institution. He says with a twinkle that the Faculty of Medicine in Baltimore “was hardly known for its liberal, philosophical debates”, a fine-tuned way of explaining how a conservative tradition sat in the walls.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 8 of 10
US Ambassador Erik Ramanathan during a visit to Uppsala, where he visits biotechnology companies and Stuns, a foundation that works to strengthen cooperation between the university, local authorities and the business community. They tell about Uppsala, about the city’s 50,000 students, and that 40 percent of the inhabitants here have at least three years of post-secondary education.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 9 of 10
Erik Ramanathan (left) gets a tour of the company Gradientech in Uppsala, where Martin Karlsson talks about the development of an analysis method that quickly diagnoses sepsis, a common cause of death for patients in hospitals.

Photo: Roger Turesson

Picture 10 of 10
One evening, panel discussions and mingling are held in the residence in Diplomatstaden. The discussions are about how business can become more inclusive for LGBTQI people. Ambassador Erik Ramanathan leads one of the panels – which includes Johanna Gustafsson from Saab Transponder tech, and Ranesh Ramanathan, the ambassador’s husband.

Photo: Roger Turesson