Politicians reopen debate over LGBTQ+ healthcare guide

Politicians in Southern Denmark will debate a rejected LGBTQ+ guide for healthcare staff again on Monday, after disagreements over gender-neutral language, DR reports.

The draft was rejected by a majority on the regional executive committee following a proposal from the Liberal Party, Venstre. The guide was intended to offer practical advice for conversations with LGBTQ+ patients and explain the terms they use about themselves.

Noah Knudsen, a transgender man and spokesperson for Odense Pride, took part in meetings with the region about its LGBTQ+ policy and the guide. He said he has sometimes felt out of place when arranging medical examinations, including a cervical screening appointment and a preliminary examination of his uterus.

“I feel like a burden and out of place, and generally I lose a little trust in the healthcare professional,” Knudsen said. He added that staff appeared willing to meet his needs but did not know how. “You shouldn’t have to cross your fingers that the doctor or nurse you see has the right tools,” he said.

Venstre argues that there are only two genders and wants terms including the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” removed from the guide, describing the language as “woke ideological” usage. “It says staff should practise saying ‘hen’ and ‘den’ and avoid saying ‘he’ and ‘she’ in sentences, and we don’t think we should encourage staff to do that,” said Pernelle Jensen, chair of Venstre’s group on the regional council.

Jensen also objected to wording that says people are assigned a gender at birth. “You are either a girl or a boy, and that is what we want to make clear with our amendment,” she said. She argued that the regional council should not endorse a document that imposes an ideology on staff, while saying patients should be treated with respect and that individual arrangements could be made.

The guide was developed after regional employees asked for practical tools and greater confidence in the language they use with LGBTQ+ patients. Healthcare staff and LGBTQ+ people have raised concerns that removing material about non-binary people could lead some patients to withdraw from healthcare. Jensen said she distinguished between making individual arrangements and the council politically approving instructions on how staff should speak to patients.

Other parties on the regional council called for the guide to be discussed again after Venstre’s position was announced. If the proposed amendments pass on Monday, the guide could still be published, but Knudsen said that would not be enough if references to non-binary people were removed. “Non-binary people exist,” he said. “It makes no sense to erase them from the book, because we cannot erase their existence.”