Discrimination and hatred
KEY FIGURES
Discrimination
38 % of homosexuals and bisexuals ...
64 % of transgender and nonbinary persons ...
16-17 % of heterosexuals and cisgender persons ...
... have experienced differential treatment based on their gender, sexual orientation or appearance.
Source: Greve et al. (2022)
Hate crimes
2,000-3,000 LGBT+ persons ...
... are victims of a violent hate crime each year.
Hate speech
Unknown.
Each year, a number of persons are subjected to hate speech directed at their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.
- In Denmark, LGBT+ persons are legally protected against e.g. discrimination, harassment and hate crimes.
- LGBT+ persons often experience discrimination directed at their sexual orientation, gender or appearance. This is especially true of transgender persons.
- Each year, 2,000-3,000 LGBT+ persons experience hate-motivated violence. Nevertheless, few hate crimes are – for unknown reasons – investigated by the police. The police are not obliged at the time of reporting to determine whether a crime is motivated by hatred.
- The precise extent of hate speech directed at LGBT+ persons is unknown. Several surveys suggest that harsh comments in online public debates are largely directed at LGBT+ persons. In the period 2000-2021, the courts only considered 7 cases of hate speech directed at the victim’s sexual orientation.
Editing was completed September 2023
Discrimination is when a person for no justified or legal reason is treated less favourably than others. Discrimination may cause a person to be fully or partly excluded from participation in society.
LGBT+ persons are protected by law (section 1, subsection 2 of the Act on Differential Treatment and section 2, subsection 2 of the Act on Equal Treatment) against discrimination, as any type of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics, race, skin colour, religious or political orientation, age, disabilities and national, social or ethnic origin is prohibited.
Nevertheless, more than one in three homosexuals and bisexuals and two in three transgender persons have experienced differential treatment because of their gender, sexual orientation or appearance. By comparison, this is true of only one in 10 heterosexual men.
A person who has experienced discrimination has a right to file a complaint with the Board of Equal Treatment, which makes decisions in cases of discrimination. If the Board finds that the complainant has indeed suffered discrimination, the complainant may be entitled to financial compensation.
In the following three cases, the Board of Equal Treatment decided that LGBT+ persons had been subjected to discrimination:
- A job application was turned down on grounds of the complainant’s sexual orientation (2012).
- A transgender woman was referred to as ”he” and by her former name by a family care worker with the local council (2017).
- A transgender woman’s application for vocal cord surgery – a procedure available to cisgender women – was denied (2022).
The Danish Institute for Human Rights’ Discrimination Hotline advises and guides individuals who have experienced discrimination on grounds of gender, age, religious orientation, disabilities, race, ethnic origin, sexuality, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. We can also help you if you wish to take your case to the Board of Equal Treatment.
Call us at +45 3269 8666 Mondays-Thursdays at 12.00-15.00.
Discrimination
“I have been yelled at in the street and in public transport. I therefore rarely take the bus or metro. Sometimes people make provocative comments, or they spit, push or kick me.”
- Frederik (LGBT+-person)
A hate crime consists of two distinct elements: 1) a criminal offence 2) motive of hatred. Criminal offences such as violence, threats, vandalism etc. are considered hate crimes if they are directed at a person’s or group’s religious orientation, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics or disabilities. If this is the case, the motivation will be considered an aggravating circumstance in connection with sentencing (cf. section 81, subsection 6 of the Criminal Code).
Hate crimes greatly affect the victims and instil fear and anxiety in the LGBT+ community in general. In a survey conducted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, 45 % of the participating LGBT+ persons say that they change their behaviour when they enter the public domain, and that they sometimes or always avoid specific public places.
In the Ministry of Justice’s annual victimisation survey, around one in five victims of violence says that the crime was motivated by racism or hatred of their presumed sexual orientation, gender identity or religious orientation.
Each year, 2,000-3,000 LGBT+ persons experience hate-motivated violence, corresponding to 5-8 persons a day. In 2021, the National Police of Denmark merely recorded 102 cases against LGBT+ persons. 34 of these involved violence against LGBT+ persons. This means that for every 100 LGBT+ persons subjected to hate-motivated violence, only one case is recorded by the police. Consequently, there is a huge gap between the number of hate crimes experienced by LGBT+ persons and the number of hate crimes recorded by the police.
This may be because the victims choose not to report incidents to the police because they experience hate crimes all the time or do not believe reporting them will make a difference. Lack of confidence in the police may also play a role in the number of reports. Furthermore, some of the reported incidents are not defined by the police as hate crimes, as the police is not obliged to determine at the time of reporting whether a crime is motivated by hatred.
If you have been a victim of violence or hate speech, you should always report the incident to the police. Call 114, write to the police or go to the nearest police station.
If the incident is based on your sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics, it may be a hate crime.
Read more about hate crimes on the police’s website, which also contains contact information for the individual police districts.
Get help reporting an incident:
On the organisation Lev og Lad Leve’s website, you can get help reporting a hate crime. Find more information about reporting an incident and what the report should contain.
Hate crime
“I got hate messages online when I first started being open about my sexuality. Some came from people I knew, some from people I didn’t know, and some contained threats, even death threats.”
- Frederik (LGBT+-person)
Hate speech is a specific form of hate crime described in section 266 B of the Criminal Code as public statements or statements to be disseminated to a larger group of people which threaten, taunt or degrade a group of people on grounds of race, skin colour, national or ethnic origin, religious orientation, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics. Persons convicted of hate speech are liable to a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.
In the Ministry of Justice’s victimisation survey, 21,000 (16,000-26,000) Danish citizens report having experienced hate speech on the internet in 2020 of a racist nature or directed at their ethnicity, religious orientation, sexuality or gender identity. In the same year, the police recorded 122 cases of violation of section 266 b of the Criminal Code – of which some had taken place online and some in public spaces. Preliminary charges were filed in 56 of these cases, and in 11 cases, the perpetrator was convicted. There are no available figures for the number of LGBT+ persons subjected to hate speech.
The fact that few incidents are reported to the police may be due to general uncertainty as to when hate speech is considered a criminal offence. The Public Prosecutor has published a list of convictions in cases of hate speech. In the period 2000-2021, 147 cases of hate speech ended with a conviction. Only seven of these concerned sexual orientation. In 2022, the Code was amended to also include disabilities and gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. However, so far no convictions have been based on these criteria.
“They deserve a bullet to the head, those disgusting fagots.” (Conviction 1.2.16.) (60-day suspended prison sentence)
”They should never have stopped considering it a mental condition. It will never be normal. On the contrary.” (Conviction 1.1.99.) (DKK-5,000 fine)
”Homosexuality is unnatural. It is like having sex with animals.” “It is unacceptable and just as normal as eating your own faeces. Or eating dogs. To us, they rank alongside paedophiles. It makes me sick to the stomach when I hear about homosexuality.” (Conviction 1.2.14.) (7-day suspended prison sentence)
There may be additional circumstances that have been relevant in the sentencing.
Source: Rigsadvokatens Praksisoversigt – Hadforbrydelser (the Criminal Code section 266 b)
Public debate characterised by abusive and degrading language directed at LGBT+ persons can have a deterrent effect and cause LGBT+ persons to abstain from participating in the public debate for fear of personal attacks. A survey conducted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights in May 2021, based on an online questionnaire produced by YouGov, finds that LGBT+ persons are up to four times more likely to have been threatened on Facebook than the rest of the population. Where 39 % of the participating LGBT+ persons had received threats on Facebook within the past year, the same was true of only 9 % of the rest of the population.
Topics such as equality and LGBT+, especially articles and comments about transgender persons, can trigger hateful comments. A Norwegian study conducted by Analyse&Tal (2023) of around half a million tweets and Facebook posts and comments in the period 2018-2022, identifies a significant increase in posts on queer-related topics. Furthermore, the study finds that Twitter debates on transgender persons are highly polarised, and that Pride is addressed in increasingly critical terms, e.g., as a “dangerous and radical ideology, targeted especially at children and youth.” No similar studies have been conducted of the language characterising the Danish public debate on LGBT+ related topics.
Hate speech
- Rigspolitiet (2021). Hadforbrydelser i 2020. Rigspolitiets årsrapport vedrørende hadforbrydelser. Rigspolitiet, Nationalt Forebyggelsescenter.
- Greve, J., Østergaard, S. V., Andersen, M. & Thomsen, M. K. (2022). Kortlægning af homo- og biseksuelles samt transpersoners levevilkår og samfundsdeltagelse. VIVE - Det Nationale Forsknings- og Analysecenter for Velfærd.
- Institut for Menneskerettigheder (2022). Den offentlige debat på Facebook. En undersøgelse af danskernes debatadfærd. Institut for Menneskerettigheder.
- Justitsministeriet Forskningskontor (2022). Udsathed for vold og andre former for kriminialitet - Offerundersøgelserne 2005-2020.
- Analyse & Tal (2023). Ytringsklimaet for skeive på Twitter og Facebook.