Support equality in Faroe Islands
07/11/2006
LGBT activists organised an online petition and are demanding that the Faroe Islands ban sexual orientation discrimination and pass a registered partnership law to bring the islands into line with the rest of the Nordic region. The Faroes, population 47,000, are a self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark located halfway between Norway and Iceland. In 1989, Denmark became the first nation in the world to pass a registered-partnership law granting same-sex couples the rights of marriage.
Last year, the Faroese parliament rejected an antidiscrimination law by a vote of 20 to 12.
The new push for the law follows a homophobic attack in a bar in Tórshavn, the capital, on popular local radio host Rasmus Rasmussen, who is openly gay. Rasmussen and his family also received threatening phone calls after local media reported on the beating.
Online petition:
