LGBT+ Denmark offers free, specialized legal counseling on family affairs for all LGBT+ people. This covers family formation, parent-roles and responsibilities, multi-parent families, navigating public systems and regulations as a sexual minority or as a gender minority and a lot more.We also offer counseling on all the questions that go before actually having a child: For example, relational questions, questions about identity or questions about your body. We provide you with counseling for your specific situation.
There are many things to take into account, when you decide to establish a family as an LGBT+ person. Some of these things, you even need to start or consider, before you start trying to have children. If things go wrong, you risk having limited maternity leave, not having the right to spend time with your child or risk having fewer or no parental rights. As a donor, you can also risk getting custody or a child, you were only supposed to be a donor for. Because of this, we strongly encourage you to receive specialized consultation as soon as possible.
We provide free counseling in understanding your specific legal context as a family, partner, parent or donor. The current Danish legislation is still built around the norm of a father, mother and children, and because of this, rainbow-families face extra barriers in establishing and functioning as families. Our counseling is centered around giving you the facts about your legal status, rights and responsibilities, in order to give you the best prerequisites to establish the kind of family you want.
For many LGBT+ people the questions around family formation can give rise to doubts, worries and insecurities. We offer confidential conversations about everything, that lies before actually having a child. This can be relational questions, questions about identity or about your own body.
Our specialized legal counseling on family affairs is handled by our in-house counselor June Stoltenberg.
Specifically, we provide specialized legal counseling on:
Children
Are you considering to have a child?
Are you currently in the process of having a child?
Questions related to the citizenship of your children
Everything that goes before actually getting a child, for example:
Counseling related to your identity as a parent
Relational counseling in terms of your romantic or other caregivers
Worries about facing discrimination as an LGBT+ family or parent
Considerations about your own body, for example as a trans-person or donor
Questions about regretting or future conflicts with other caregivers
Fertility treatments
What are your rights and options regarding fertility treatments?
What are the advantages of public healthcare vs. private healthcare in Denmark?
Parenting as an LGBT+ person
Have you recently become a parent?
Who will have custody in a rainbow-family?
Are you a trans-person, and have questions regarding becoming a parent?
Do you have questions about co-mothering or co-fathering?
Sperm and egg-donations
Are you considering to be a donor to another family or individual?
What are your rights and responsibilities as a donor?
Surrogacy
What are the rules regarding surrogacy in Denmark?
How are international surrogacy agreements viewed in Denmark?
Multi-parent families
What are your options as multi-parent families?
Who gets which rights and responsibilities, in families with more than two parents?
What is the legal status of social parents?
Familieretshuset and the law
Danish legislation places a great deal of responsibility on Familieretshuset, an administrative when establishing agreements. We can help you understand how they work and how to best navigate the system.
LGBT+ parents who are not Danish
To a certain degree we can give advice on navigating the Danish system as a couple, where one or both of you are not Danish citizens.
WEBINAR: LGBT+ Denmark’s former specialized LGBT+ family formation lawyer walks you through your rights regarding family formation
See the full webinar in English from the 15th of October 2024.
Disclaimers – The presentation is describing the rules as they were on the 15th of October 2024, please be aware that some information is out of date, when you see watch the presentation and slides. – The subtitles are auto-generated, so you should always rely on the spoken word in the presentation.
Before you contact us
Before you reach out to us, we recommend that you read our guides related to family formation, since you might be able to find the answer to your questions there, and if you have more background-knowledge, the counseling usually turns out better. You can access the guides here: Guides.
Every spring and autumn, we arrange public presentations about family formation. You can find more info in our calendar or in our newsletter for members.
