Same-sex marriage became legal in Denmark on 15 June 2012. The bill for legalization, introduced by the government of Helle Thorning-Schmidt, was approved by the Folketing on 7 June 2012 and received Royal Assent on 12 June 2012. Same-sex couples were previously recognised throughregistered partnerships. Denmark was the eleventh country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.
The status of marriage is different in Denmark’s two constituent countries:
- In Greenland, legislation to allow same-sex marriage passed the Parliament of Greenland on 26 May 2015. The Danish Parliament (known as the Folketing) ratified the legislation on 19 January 2016 and the marriage law will go into effect on 1 April 2016.
- In the Faroe Islands, same-sex couples have no right to a state-sanctioned same-sex union (ie: partnership) or marriage scheme. Attempts to legislate for same-sex marriage have failed in the country’s legislature.
YouGov poll, conducted between 27 December 2012 and 6 January 2013, found that 79% of supported same-sex marriage and 16% were opposed. The rest of the 6% had no opinion on this issue. The same poll also showed that 59% supported same-sex couples to adopt, 31% were opposed and 11% had no opinion.
A May 2013 Gallup survey from Faroe Islands found that 68% favoured civil marriage for same-sex couples, with 27% against and 5% undecided. All the regions showed a majority support and no age groups had more opponents than the supporters.
Another poll from the Faroe Islands showed that 62% of respondents supported same-sex marriage. The regional divide was significant. Support was greater on Streymoy (71% in Norðurstreymoy; 78% in Suðurstreymoy) which includes the capital Tórshavn, than in the Northern Isles (42%) and on Eysturoy (48%).
In August 2014, a poll from the Faroe Islands was conducted, asking 600 respondents on their views towards civil marriage for same-sex couples. Out of the 600 respondents, 61% supported the idea, while 32% opposed and 7% had no opinion.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Same-sex marriage in Denmark, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.