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EuroGames coming to Copenhagen in 2021

Christian Wenande
March 5th, 2018


This article is more than 6 years old.

LGBT sporting event to be held in tandem with WorldPride

Last October, it was revealed that Copenhagen will host the world’s largest LGBT festival, WorldPride, in 2021.

Now the European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation has decided that the huge LGBT sporting event EuroGames will also be held at the same time in Copenhagen, setting the scene for one massive LGBT event in the Danish capital in 2021.

“We are incredibly proud that athletes from all over Europe have voted for us to host EuroGames, and for Copenhagen to be the host city of this rainbow sporting event,” said Christian Bigom, chair of Pan Idræt, the organisation that produced the winning bid.

Merging the two big events means that Copenhagen could expect upwards of 500,000 people descending upon the city to take part in the proceedings.

READ MORE: Copenhagen chosen to host WorldPride in 2021

Everyone welcome
EuroGames, which Copenhagen last hosted in 2003, is a sports event for European LGBT athletes, but really anyone can take part as the goal of the event is to promote inclusion in sports and create a safe space for athletes regardless of sexuality and gender.

EuroGames in 2021 will offer events in 27 sports – from traditional sports like football and swimming to more quirky and new-age sports like dodgeball and eSport.

Some of the events will take place across the Øresund Bridge in Malmö, but most will be hosted in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg.

Gender-neutral toilet
In related news, the Aarhus event centre Musikhuset raised eyebrows by temporarily offering a gender-neutral toilet in connection with comedian Sofie Hagen performing last Friday. Hagen has worked towards there being gender-neutral toilets in all venues where she performs.

The toilet will help transsexual people, who don’t identify themselves as being a specific gender, from avoiding stigmatisation by visiting the traditional men’s or women’s toilets. Musikhuset is considering making the change permanent.

It’s not the first gender-neutral toilet in Denmark, however. Empire Bio cinema in Copenhagen was one of the first to offer toilets for transgendered people in 2015.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”