Queen Margrethe II of Denmark adbicates

In Denmark, the Monarch always gives a live TV address during New Years Eve. This year, it contained a bit of breaking news: The fact that she is abdicating on January 14th, and that her son, Crown prince Frederik, will become the Monarch instead.

Probably unsurprisingly to all, I am not for monarchies, even as symbolic and defanged as in Denmark, and I had hoped that we could do away with it after the current monarch. Unfortunately it probably won’t happen this time.

Source: Queen of Denmark Margrethe II announces abdication live on TV

Conversion therapy banned in Norway

This has flown under my radar, but the Norwegian parliament voted to ban conversion therapy on December 12, and the ban was approved 85-15. The ban makes it illegal to try to change someones sexual orientation or gender identity through medicine, alternative medicine, and religious methods among other things. The maximum penalty is 3 years of jail, 6 years in serious cases.

Source: Forbud mot konverteringsterapi vedtatt i Stortinget (article in Norwegian)