Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 08:02:09 +0100 (MEZ)
From: Bj|rn Skolander <Bjorn.Skolander@nordiska.uu.se>


Thursday, September 27, 1995
OBITUARY
EIGIL AXGIL, DANISH GAY LEADER, 71
   Copenhagen, Sept. 27  - Eigil Axgil, whose lifelong crusade for gay
rights made Denmark the first country in the world to allow same-sex
marriages, has died at 71, a newspaper reported today.
   Mr. Axgil died Friday.  The cause of his death was not immediately
available.
   On Oct. 1, 1989, he and Axel Axgil became the first gay men to take
marriage vows legally.  That was the same day that a law took effect in
Denmark that allowed homosexuals to register marriages.
   In 1948, the men - at the time using their original names Eigil Eskildsen
and Axel Lundahl-Madsen - founded the National Homosexual Association, one of
the oldest gay rights groups in Europe.
   Six years ago, Danish legislators approved a law giving homosexuals all
the rights and obligations of marriage, except adopting a child or obtaining
semen for conception.
   Other countries in Europe soon followed suit.