Some trans people, QTIBIPOCs and/or migrants continued to struggle financially. Queer and trans communities provided sporadic and informal aid.

Several trans people continued to report to civil society being denied access to spaces and services and threatened or assaulted.

The anti-trans and anti-gender discourse continued to intensify, particularly when lowering the age limit for legal gender recognition was discussed by Parliament. Christian sites called trans groups “gender lobbyists”, claiming they took children “hostage” and wanted to perform “medical experiments” on them.

Threats and online hate comments, including death threats and being called a ‘paedophile’, targeted a drag performer ahead of a drag story time event in Frederiksberg. Several politicians made hateful remarks about the event (see here, here and here).

The police’s hate crime report published in January and focusing on the year 2021, found a 29% increase in anti-LGBT hate crimes compared to the previous year.

The court procedures started in the case of an 18-year-old man who planned anti-LGBT violence and arson in Aarhus 2022. Trans organisers continued receiving reports of police attacks on BIPOC queer and trans people.

Every year, between 2,000 and 3,000 LGBTI people experience violence due to their perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and/ or sex characteristics, accounting for about 4% of victims of violence, according to a Ministry of Justice’s study on crimes between 2005 and 2021. The number is probably higher as many trans people and QTIBIPOCs do not report to authorities.

In October, Denmark signed a joint statement calling to better protect intersex people. The statement was delivered during the 54th UN Human Rights Council. However, civil society organisations criticise that the government continues to not abide by its commitments.

In December, the UN Committee Against Torture issued its concluding observations on Denmark as part of its 8th Periodic Review, noting that it received evidence that “unnecessary and irreversible surgery and other medical treatments” are performed in Denmark without the personal consent of the individual. The Committee recommended that Denmark undertake studies of intersex people and their experiences, offer robust psychosocial counselling and support to the parents of intersex people, ensure that those subject to unnecessary interventions have access to remedy, and intersex adults should have access to treatment without discrimination based on their gender identity.

The government launched a consultation on the draft law on mandatory sex education in upper secondary education – civil society recommended to include GIE issues in its scope.

In 2023 the government also launched the first major survey of the wellbeing of LGBT+ pupils from 15-25 years in the Danish educational system, results are expected to be published in 2024. Queer educational centre Normstormerne continued to be targeted by politicians, and the centre lost major funding.

LGBT+ Denmark and the Boston Consulting Group’s study ‘Danish Companies Miss the Mark on LGBT+ Inclusion’ found that 81% of LGBT+ people have experienced or witnessed discrimination against LGBT+ people at work.

Large companies continue to enrol employees in awareness- raising workshops on making safe and inclusive workplaces, e.g. by using gender neutral pronouns, installing gender neutral bathrooms, etc.

Trans people, particularly those from racial and ethnic minorities, continue to struggle due to unstable income.

One of Denmark’s largest companies Chr. Hansen withdrew its support to Copenhagen Pride in June, for fear of boycotts and loss of income. 400 employees signed a letter of protest.

For the first time, both municipalities of Aarhus and Odense adopted broad LGBT+ policies covering a wide array of initiatives. In 2023, the new government reconfirmed its intention to fulfil the LGBT+ Action Plan (2022-2025) of the previous government.

On 26 January, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a lesbian couple whose child was conceived through home insemination and ordered that the child’s birth certificate recognise both women as co-mothers. The couple used sperm from a known donor and carried out the insemination after consulting a doctor. The court found this was sufficient to be in compliance with the Children’s Act, amended by the parliament in 2022.

Civil society has been calling on the Ministry of Health not to block the adoption of the amendments ever since.

In December, the Ministry of Health gave up their refusal and the Ministry of Social Affairs now enforces the changes to the Children’s Act.

In January, the Ethics Council published new recommendations, stating that healthcare personnel should be able to participate in altruistic surrogacy, but maintained its position against commercial surrogacy. The government announced reform plans in family law in April, including recognising the parenthood of intended parents in both altruistic and foreign commercial surrogacy. In September, an expert group published its report on commercial surrogacy, with recommendations on how to regulate surrogacy and parenthood recognition, centering on the rights of the child.

The National Research and Analysis Centre for Welfare (VIVE) released a new study in August, focusing on three- and four- parent rainbow families, finding that they face challenges on a daily basis and risk having no rights in case of separation and breakup. Civil society continued to lobby for multiple parenthood recognition (see here and here). Based on the study, a government working group is looking into giving multi parent families better rights. The working group is expected to reach a decision in the summer of 2024.

The Ministry of Development redirected aid to Uganda following consultations with civil society after the country passed its harshest ever anti-LGBT passed this spring.

Denmark joined the European Commission’s infringement proceedings against Hungary.

The number of Pride marches in the country continues to grow, with Prides now taking place in 17 cities. The municipalities of Aarhus, Aalborg and Copenhagen are all funding LGBT+ safe spaces.

A longitudinal academic study found that over the last four decades, trans people have been 7.7 times more likely to attempt suicide and 3.5 times more likely to die of suicide than the general population.

The state monopoly of trans-specific healthcare (TSH) continued, split between three clinics. Trans people continue to report rigid gatekeeping, medicalisation, pathologisation, racism, binary gender regimes, anti-migrant, anti-sex worker, anti-poverty, anti-fat and ableist structures and approaches that prevent access to trans healthcare. Access to TSH continues to be denied or delayed indefinitely for people with certain psychiatric diagnoses and/or who have survived severe trauma. Waiting times have also continued to be long, resulting in many trans people, who have the financial means, resorting to purchasing hormones abroad.

Despite a continuous dialogue with few select LGBT+ organisations, the Danish Health Authority published new guidelines for gender affirming surgeries that do not meet the needs of the target group, especially regarding the lack of access to mastectomy without hormone treatment, lack of solutions for young adults who have already received gender affirming care as teenagers, and no clarifications for the mandate of surgeons, who continue to have an outsized influence on patient care decisions. The guidelines further seminate the demand for psychiatric assessment found in the 2018 national guidelines.

Intersex adults continued to face limitations in accessing hormones and surgeries, requiring a transgender diagnosis for such treatments and receiving care from trans healthcare specialists, instead of intersex healthcare specialists.

One of Denmark’s largest insurance companies Sygeforsikringen “danmark” changed its discriminatory policy this year and will no longer deny coverage to men who take PrEP.

As a result of the ‘ghetto laws’, which involves renting at least 60% of rebuilt and renovated homes in poor areas at market rates, many trans people, particularly those from racial and ethnic minorities, continue to struggle with access to housing. Several fundraisers were organised to support the communities.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark’s equality body, launched a LGBT+ barometer on the living conditions of LGBT people in Denmark, grouping existing data from different sources, but failed to include key information on human rights violations against intersex people, which had been supplied by CSOs.

The government published three funding calls to boost research in the area of trans healthcare provision.

The government previously vowed that it would follow up on the previous government’s plans to abolish the legal gender recognition (LGR) age limit and remove the six-month ‘reflection period’. In March, a parliamentary hearing took place on the issue and several trans minors spoke out in support of lowering the age limit. In August, the civil registry published a statement that trans minors under 18 should also be able to access LGR in line with Denmark’s international obligation. This can be done administratively and the first minors have now obtained LGR. The Ministry of the Interior and Health will present a new law in 2024 to bring legislation in line with this practice based on international regulation.

Denmark’s two main sports associations introduced a third gender option, allowing sports clubs to register members who do not identify as male or female.

In November, the Danish Football Association, which organises 359,000 professional and amateur football players in Denmark, decided to adopt the recommendations of a working group on inclusion of transgender, intersex and non-binary players. A new diversity officer will implement the changes in the coming years, which will mean full access for all gender minorities in amateur football based on self-id, full access for trans men in the men’s elite ranks. For the women’s elite ranks, inclusion will be based on individual assessment.

Court cases of trans and intersex people, subjected to violence and discrimination by prison guards and other incarcerated people, are ongoing. In May, the High Court of Eastern Denmark ruled in a regressive judgement that a trans woman’s placement in the male prison was legal. The Court argued that as the prisoner was convicted of rape, he would pose a threat to female inmates and also relied on the fact that the woman changed her legal gender, but has not undergone all surgeries she could.

The Danish probation service launched an internal guide on how to treat LGBTI people in prisons and detention centres. While largely positive, the guide recommends that police officers should frisk detainees based on their sex assigned at birth, and instead of using gender identity as criteria, putting trans and intersex people at risk.

A study found that one in five people have a positive attitude towards gender-neutral language.

Following the opening of two LGBT+ shelters in 2022, the demand continued to be high this year.