Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

telly we share what we've been watching

Cladie Aide.

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Frahana Hither and today we go back to 1989 when Denmark

became the first country to celebrate same-sex civil unions. In 2014, I went to Copenhagen to meet Ivan Larson and Uva Carlson,

who were one of the first couples to sign on the dotted line.

It was a very special day for us and we thought the both of us at last the day had come to us.

It was a marvelous day.

The sun was shining and we were very happy that it at last would be possible to have a relation that look like ordinary marriage.

The day was October 1st, 1989 and the law allowing civil unions had just come into effect.

Uva and even were among 11 couples to have their civil union ceremony in City Hall in Copenhagen. The law was something that Ivan had long been

campaigning for. We had been fighting for the partnership for many years from

the 70s I think. We had a right-wing government in Denmark and this

government was against it and then we suddenly came and said hey can we get a

partnership and it took long time to get in touch with people in the Danish parliament who should pass such law.

But because of the AIDS epidemic they couldn't see that we were quite normal people. So why shouldn't we have a

partnership law? And what was it about the AIDS epidemic that helped you win more rights?

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