The fear of negative consequences of the registered partnership law was not exactly widespread in Scandinavia, but it could be dramatically formulated. When the Danish partnership law became effective on 1 October 1989, five men and one woman voiced their concern in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper:

This argument cannot be regarded as representative of many Danes, but it expressed the feelings of some of those of a Christian conviction who opposed the law. Denmark would be punished by God and disregarded by other nations. As far as it is humanly possible to ascertain, this has not happened, but the law in Denmark ‒ and in the other Nordic countries ‒ nevertheless has had effects, not only on the lives of the gay and lesbian couples who used it to regulate their relationships but also on society as a whole. Here we will examine the immediate aftermath of the laws in the various regions of Scandinavia, the struggles to obstruct their implementation, and the initiatives to widen their scope. We will discuss the effects of the partnership laws on society as a whole and will trace the development from state recognition of the childless same-sex couple to that of the procreative rainbow family.

Smooth implementation in Denmark

When the law was first adopted in Denmark, it was supported by more than half of the population, but as the quote above indicates, there were those who feared that it would harm Denmark as a nation, and that it was a violation of the Christian values that Danish society was built on. Immediately after the bill had been voted on by the Danish Parliament, the small Christian People's Party (Kristeligt Folkeparti) demanded a referendum. However, they were far from having the necessary sixty signatures in Parliament which would force the Government to order it. Only their own four members and a handful of members from the right-wing populist Progress Party signed their petition.