## INTRODUCTION LGBT+ STUDIES AT THE SAXO INSTITUTE

By: Peter Edelberg History

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The last 5-6 years have experienced a boom in LGBT+ history in Denmark. In this introduction, I will shortly describe the major projects that have contributed to LGBT+ history in Denmark in recent years. Then I will introduce the articles in this special issue of Culture and History - Student Research Papers with the theme: LGBT+ studies. They have been written across several disciplines and sections at the Saxo Institute: history, ethnology, and the international section, Danish Culture Courses. Hopefully, they show the deep and committed interest of both Danish and international students in this field and can thus encourage further anchoring of LGBT+ studies.

Three  major  projects  have  in  recent  years  contributed  to  our  knowledge  of  LGBT+  history  in Denmark and further across Scandinavia: The NordiQueer Project 2019-2022, the CHAD Project 2021-2024, and the Queer Kvinder (Queer Women) Project 2022-2026.

The project 'A Nordic Queer Revolution? Homo- and Trans-Activism in Denmark, Norway and Sweden 1948-2018 (NordiQueer)' gathered five scholars and an associated PhD fellow under the leadership of professors Jens Rydström (University of Lund) and Tone Hellesund (University of

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Bergen). From Denmark, I participated and explored Scandinavian gay and lesbian activism from 1948-2021 (Edelberg 2024a; Edelberg 2024b).

At the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Difference at the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures (NORS) at University of Copenhagen, the project 'A Cultural History of Aids in Denmark (CHAD)' resulted in a book that for the first time described and analyzed the cultural, political, and social history of hiv/aids in Denmark in the 1980s and 1990s (Nebeling Petersen et al.  2024) as well as several articles. The project was led by associate professor Michael Nebeling Petersen.

At  Roskilde  University  an  ongoing  project  on  queer  women  in  Danish  history,  'New  Stories  of Same-Sex Relations 1880-2020 (Queer Women)', has already resulted in a book on  protolesbian history in the period 1870-1920 (Andreassen 2025), as well as several articles. The project is led by professor in communication, Rikke Andreassen.

Other individual projects should be mentioned. In 2024, Danish historian, Jacob Preene started a 4-year PhD scholarship at the University of Örebro in Sweden on the project 'History of Trans Activism in Scandinavia, 1960s to 2000s', focusing on Denmark and Sweden. Another Danish-born PhD fellow, Christoffer Koch Andersen, is currently doing a project on 'Codes of Life, Codes of Death: Tracing the (Im)possibility of Trans Lives in Algorithmic Assemblages', also drawing on Danish data, at the University of Cambridge. In 2024, newly retired Danish historian, Karin Cohr Lützen, published an updated version of her seminal 1986-book, 'Hvad hjertet begærer - Kvinders kærlighed til kvinder i 200 år (What the Heart Desires: Women's Love of Women During 200 Years)' (Lützen 2024).

This revolution in Danish LGBT+ history is truly astonishing, but unfortunately it might fizzle out. Still, no tenured scholar with designated research time, hired at a Danish historical department, with history  of  women,  gender  or  sexuality  as  their  primary  field  of  inquiry,  exist,  to  say  nothing  of tenured researchers at history departments with LGBT+ history as their primary field of inquiry. Luckily, the Gender Studies department at the University of Copenhagen, as well as the Department of Communication and Culture at Roskilde University has turned towards history in recent years, as we have seen, but their interest might go in other directions in the future. To ensure that we continue  to  produce  LGBT+  historical  studies,  we  need  the  historical  departments  to  take responsibility,  while  historical  projects  at  other  departments  will  only  enrich  a  cross-disciplinary investigation of history. One might also note the 'brain drain', the literary scholar Dag Heede once

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remarked, when he noted that both younger and older Danish scholars who wished for positions where they could explore queer studies, would flee to e.g. Sweden. Not much has happened since with regards to designated positions or PhD scholarships in the field of queer history.

This  special  issue  combines  perspectives  on  LGBT+  studies  from  both  history  and  ethnology students. Also, international students have contributed with a view on Denmark from the outside. Two articles outside of the theme, but serendipitously close to the theme of sexuality, minority and marginality, have been added to the issue.

In  the  first  two  articles,  history  students  Stine  Søby  Fogh  and  Jacob  Leisner  conducts  critical historical analyses of twentieth century history of sexuality. Leisner investigates an early Danish gay rights  manifesto  of 1954, and its peculiarly useful contradictory rhetorics, while Fogh traces the impact  of  (in)famous  police  inspector,  Jens  Jersild  of  the  Copenhagen  Vice  Squad  and  his overlooked influence on the curriculum of sexual education in schools.

Ethnology student, Maria Louise Østengaard-Sejersen follows with an exploration of liquid gender identity in contemporary queer performance art.  Another ethnology student, Thea Yde Petersen follows  with  a  critical  analysis  of  two  surveys  of  the  well-being  of  LGBT+  people  in  Danish workplaces and their widely differing results.

Two international students conclude the theme of the issue. Clara Rieger analyzes the importance of queer spaces based on her study of the lesbian/queer bar Vela in Copenhagen, and David Laufer explores the (im)possibility of living as a digital citizen in Denmark (who prides itself on its thorough digitization) if you are not cis-gendered.

Two articles outside of the theme follow. Emil Theodor Hansen studies slavery in ancient Athens and the socio-economical aspects of enslaved wet nurses, and Nuala Tranter discuss the male and, not  least,  the  female  gaze  inside  the  harem  during  European  colonialism.  These  two  articles beautifully demonstrate how marginalization and sexualization are not just issues for LGBT+ or queer persons in history.

All in all, the articles illustrate the interest in LGBT+ studies or history and sexuality across the Saxo Institute and demonstrate what the students can achieve and contribute to the ongoing studies of sexuality, gender, marginalization and inclusion.

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## Bibliography

-  Andreassen, Rikke and Merete Pryds Helle: De nye kvinder: Kærlighed og queers 1870-1920. Copenhagen: Politikens Forlag, 2025.
-  Edelberg, Peter: 'From Criminal Radicalism to Gay and Lesbian Lobbyism: A Transnational Approach to the Scandinavian Homophile Movement, 1948-1971.' Scandinavian Journal of History , vol. 49, no. 4: 513-536.
-  Edelberg, Peter: 'Revolutionaries and Reformists: A Transnational Perspective on the Scandinavian LGBT+ Movement 1972-2022.' Scandinavian Journal of History , online 24 December 2024.
-  Lützen, Karin Cohr: Hvad hjertet begærer: Kvinders kærlighed til kvinder i 200 år . Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2024.
-  Petersen, Michael Nebeling et al.: Aidskrisens Danmarkshistorie . Copenhagen: Gads Forlag, 2024.