Denmark’s gender equality minister, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, announced on Saturday that she will commission a new survey of attitudes toward homosexuality among Muslims in Denmark and in the population as a whole.
The announcement came during her speech at the Copenhagen Pride parade in the capital on August 15, 2026. DR reports that the Social Democratic minister said she fears the country is moving toward a more intolerant place. She told the news agency Ritzau that the scale of the problem must be known before it can be solved.
Halsboe-Jørgensen said the study will not only cover Muslim communities. It will also examine attitudes toward LGBT+ people across the wider Danish population, with particular attention to young men. According to DR, she wants the figures ready at the beginning of 2027.
The minister pointed to the last comparable study, carried out in 2015. That survey found that children and grandchildren of Muslim immigrants were more likely than the previous generation to view homosexuality as a religious sin. She said she fears that trend has continued and that intolerance among younger Muslims has grown.
Politiken reports that the minister worries outdated figures could lead to the problem being underestimated. The newspaper links her decision directly to the age of the 2015 survey and to her stated fear of rising intolerance.
Halsboe-Jørgensen also said foreign actors from Russia are trying to influence attitudes negatively on social media. She named the Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir as the most prominent actor in Denmark pushing attitudes in a less tolerant direction. She said anecdotal accounts suggest that something is brewing.
DR notes that Hizb ut-Tahrir appeared on Friday at Mulernes Legatskole in Odense. Representatives urged students to hold on to Muslim faith and values while attending a Danish school. The minister cited the episode as part of the trend she wants measured.
Existing figures on attitudes
Information reported in August 2026 on an open letter and video campaign from the organization. It called on students of Muslim background starting at Danish upper secondary schools to stand firm on an Islamic identity. The reporting describes the type of messaging the minister refers to, including in coverage of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s approaches to gymnasium students.
The Ministry of Environment and Gender Equality has cited research from Project SEXUS published in 2025. Those figures showed that 22 percent of Danes considered sex between two people of the same sex morally unacceptable. The same data showed that 17 percent of Muslim men and 26 percent of Muslim women found same-sex sex morally acceptable.
Neither DR nor Politiken reports who will conduct the new survey, its sample size, or its methodology. Those details have not been announced.
