Little over one year ago, Denmark implemented the most far-reaching law against discrimination of LGBTQ individuals in Europe. We’ve talked to Kirsten Mols, a transgender woman in Denmark, about the effects the law has had on Danish society.
Denmark is famous for being quite liberal – especially when it comes to LQBTQ laws. Since January 2022, the Danish goverment has explicitly banned discrimination based on gender identity, expression and characteristics. The new legislation is Europe’s most far-reaching. But even one year after the introduction of the new law, things still need to change, according to Kirsten Mols.
“There is still a lot of prejudice and discrimination against transgender people in Denmark, and physical violence. It was just up until quite recently, in 2014, that being transgender was considered a mental illness in Denmark”, says Kirsten Mols.
Although she is happy for the new law protecting trans people, she still hasn’t seen that much of a change in people’s attitudes towards transgender people. She thinks more needs to be done to include transgender people in society.
“I think we need to talk about these kind of issues a lot more on a societal level. People need to be educated on what being transgender actually is in order to fight of preconseptions”, Kirsten says.
By Ines Linder and Elise Kieffer