Same-sex marriage in Denmark

[3] Denmark was the fourth Nordic country, after Norway, Sweden and Iceland, the eighth in Europe and the eleventh in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

[23] Registered partnerships were conducted by civil ceremony only, but the Church of Denmark allowed priests to perform blessings of same-sex relationships.

Denmark's role in being the first country in the world to provide almost all of the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples caught international attention.

In January 2008, the Social Liberal Party's Equality Rapporteur, Lone Dybkjær, called for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

[33] In October 2011, Manu Sareen, the Minister for Equality and Church Affairs, announced that the Thorning-Schmidt I Cabinet was seeking to legalize same-sex marriage by spring 2012.

One of the bills would introduce a gender-neutral definition of marriage and allow same-sex couples to marry either in civil registry offices or in the Church of Denmark.

Under the law, ministers can refuse to carry out a same-sex marriage ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church building.

[48] Denmark's marriage law, as supported by the Naalakkersuisut, was to be considered by the Inatsisartut in the spring of 2014, but was postponed beyond the year due to early parliamentary elections.

Denmark's registered partnership law was never extended to the Faroe Islands, and until 2017 it was the only Nordic region to not recognize same-sex unions.

A set of bills to extend the Danish gender-neutral marriage law to the Faroe Islands was submitted to the Løgting on 20 November 2013,[53][54][55] though was rejected at second reading on 13 March 2014.

The Minister of Justice, Søren Pape Poulsen, subsequently allowed the law to go into effect on 1 July 2017, after some minor adjustments regarding the state church had been made.

The study, conducted in both Sweden and Denmark, found a 46% fall in suicides of people in same-sex unions between the periods 1989–2002 and 2003–2016, compared to 28% among heterosexual couples.

He first officiated at the marriage of a male same-sex couple on 8 February 1973 on the suggestion of a journalist from the Ekstra Bladet newspaper, which reported it as "the world's first gay wedding".

[80] Bishop of Copenhagen Czeslaw Kozon reacted to the declaration, "Everyone must be able to feel at home in the Church, accepted and loved, even if they cannot receive all sacraments...

Living in a relationship that is not a marriage, including as persons of the same sex, must therefore not mean a lack of care on the part of the institutional Church or from the community of the congregation.

Sexual orientation is not chosen voluntarily... A relationship between two people of the same sex can also contain values such as care and faithfulness..."[81] A YouGov poll conducted between 27 December 2012 and 6 January 2013 found that 79% of Danes supported same-sex marriage and 16% were opposed.

The regional divide was significant; support was greater on Streymoy (71% in Norðurstreymoy and 76% in Suðurstreymoy), which includes the capital Tórshavn, than in Norðoyar (42%) and Eysturoy (48%).

[85] An August 2014 Faroese poll asking 600 respondents for their views on civil marriage for same-sex couples showed that 61% supported the idea, while 32% were opposed and 7% had no opinion.

[87] A Pew Research Center poll, conducted between April and August 2017 and published in May 2018, showed that 86% of Danes supported same-sex marriage, 9% were opposed and 5% did not know or had refused to answer.