The government of Denmark has recently introduced eight new initiatives aimed at improving the living conditions for rainbow families. The purpose of these initiatives is to create greater equality between these family structures and traditional families. Among other things, the new measures will facilitate access to fertility treatments for LGBT+ couples and ensure that children from rainbow families have better inheritance options from all their parents.
Currently, Danish regulations permit only two legal parents for a child, which presents challenges for families with multiple parents. These additional adults, known as social parents, do not have the same rights regarding access to information from schools and healthcare services. Furthermore, inheritance from a social parent is taxed at a higher rate compared to that from a stepparent.
Marie Bjerre (V), Denmark’s Minister for Digitalization and Gender Equality, stated that the government aims to ease the daily lives of rainbow families and believes it benefits society for families to form in various ways. The government’s initiatives have generally been received positively by the organization LGBT+ Denmark. However, the organization’s secretary general, Susanne Branner, has called for all parents in a rainbow family to have full legal parenthood. She describes the new measures as “band-aid solutions” and emphasizes the need for a more comprehensive reform in family law.
The government maintains that having more than two legal parents could lead to complex situations in cases such as divorces, and thus they consider this to be incompatible with the best interests of the child. Whether the proposed initiatives will be implemented will be decided in the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) during economic negotiations this autumn.