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LGBT

Denmark’s family law paves the way for rainbow families

The rainbow flag, representing LGBTQ pride, is flying in many spots in Denmark’s capital during this week’s Copenhagen Pride.

Denmark’s family law paves the way for rainbow families
Photo: Niels Christian Vilmann / Ritzau Scanpix

But an increased prevalence of rainbow families—families with two mothers or two fathers—is evidence of longer-term progress towards equality, campaigners say.

The number of same sex parents in Danish households has more than doubled since 2009, reaching a total of 1,465 this year, according to official bureau Statistics Denmark (DST).

“It’s pleasing to see more rainbow families and reflects the fact that more is being done to accommodate them,” said Susanne Branner Jespersen, general secretary with LGBT Denmark.

Jespersen said that a section of Denmark’s family law, Børneloven, passed in 2007, could be pointed to as a contributor to progress.

“I had children myself in 2006 and was summoned by the state, because we couldn’t declare a father. And it was illegal for lesbian and single women to receive artificial insemination until 2007,” she said.

“As such, purely structural changes have taken place enabling us to lead the lives we choose,” she added.

The DST figures are identified through registered partners or married couples of the same sex whose children live with them.

Although the number of rainbow families is increasing, there is still much to campaign for, according to Jespersen.

“I hope that we will see a way towards making it easier for two men to have a child together,” she said.

There are 5,340 same sex partners—who are either registered partners or married—in Denmark. Of these, 27 percent have one or more children who live with them.

For heterosexual married couples, that figure increases to 43 percent, according to DST’s figures.

READ ALSO: Pride parade was 'biggest ever' in Copenhagen

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STOCKHOLM

Stockholm Pride is a little different this year: here’s what you need to know 

This week marks the beginning of Pride festivities in the Swedish capital. The tickets sold out immediately, for the partly in-person, partly digital events. 

Pride parade 2019
There won't be a Pride parade like the one in 2019 on the streets of Stockholm this year. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/TT

You might have noticed rainbow flags popping up on major buildings in Stockholm, and on buses and trams. Sweden has more Pride festivals per capita than any other country and is the largest Pride celebration in the Nordic region, but the Stockholm event is by far the biggest.  

The Pride Parade, which usually attracts around 50,000 participants in a normal year, will be broadcast digitally from Södra Teatern on August 7th on Stockholm Pride’s website and social media. The two-hour broadcast will be led by tenor and debater Rickard Söderberg.

The two major venues of the festival are Pride House, located this year at the Clarion Hotel Stockholm at Skanstull in Södermalm, and Pride Stage, which is at Södra Teatern near Slussen.

“We are super happy with the layout and think it feels good for us as an organisation to slowly return to normal. There are so many who have longed for it,” chairperson of Stockholm Pride, Vix Herjeryd, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

Tickets are required for all indoor events at Södra Teatern to limit the number of people indoors according to pandemic restrictions. But the entire stage programme will also be streamed on a big screen open air on Mosebacketerassen, which doesn’t require a ticket.  

You can read more about this year’s Pride programme on the Stockholm Pride website (in Swedish). 

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