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Amplify’d from ilga-europe.org
Gay activists say Denmark no longer “vanguard of equality”
Once an international leader for gay and lesbian rights, the country now lags behind when it comes to same-sex marriage
While jubilant gay and lesbian couples said “I do” by the hundreds in New York last Sunday when it became the sixth and largest US state to legalise same-sex marriage, politicians in Denmark are still saying ‘maybe’ to that milestone of gay and lesbian rights.
Some activists wonder why Denmark – once the leader for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights – still will not commit to same-sex marriage, when ten other countries, including our Scandinavian neighbours Sweden and Norway, have already done so.
In 1989 Denmark was the first country in the world to legalise ‘registered partnerships’ for same-sex couples. Registered partnership gave same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals. But 22 years later, gays and lesbians in Denmark still do not have the right to marriage or to calling themselves ‘married’.
“Parliament has decided again and again to vote against full marriage rights for all people,” William Agee, spokesperson for PANGEA, the expat network for LGBT Danmark, told The Copenhagen Post. “It highlights for me how far Denmark has fallen from being the vanguard of equality.”
That Denmark is still refusing to let same-sex couples marry “doesn’t give us the reputation I think we deserve as a country that was once so progressive on LGBT issues,” Agee added.
International same-sex couples living in Denmark are faced with special difficulties – particularly in light of today’s stricter immigration rules and tough requirements for family reunification.
“Sometimes the partner’s country will not be as accepting of same-sex couples as Denmark is, so if they do not get family reunification here in Denmark, in effect you are saying they cannot stay together,” Søren Laursen, a spokesperson on immigration issues for LGBT Danmark told The Copenhagen Post.
In countries like Iran or Malaysia, where homosexuality is illegal, it is downright dangerous to be gay. But even in the US, where individual states like New York have begun to sanction same-sex relationships, recognition at the federal level is still lacking.
“Of course it is the hope for many of these international couples to be able to settle in a country like Denmark, because typically they cannot have a future elsewhere,” Laursen said. “So there is a lot of hope and frustration when they meet with these rules.”
LGBT Danmark offers international couples help and advice for seeking family reunification in Denmark. “But sometimes we have to tell them to do what straight people do and go to Sweden, because they don’t have the same rules there,” he added. “But that is a long way to go just to be able to live together. These are people who just want to be together and start their lives.”
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