Yvonne Herløv Andersen (born 1942) is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

former politician. She left parliament in 2001. A social worker and

school principal A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

by profession, Herløv Andersen was present at the founding of the Centre Democrats in 1973, though initially in a background role, serving as assistant to party leader Erhard Jakobsen, and in other internal party positions. She was elected to the

Folketing The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands ...

(Danish parliament) in 1977 from

Sorø Sorø () is a town in Sorø municipality in Region Sjælland on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in east Denmark. The population is 7,999 (2022).

, serving until 1979, again from 1981 to 1984 from Slagelse, and from 1987–88 from

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

. In 1994 she was appointed Social Minister in the first Nyrup Rasmussen cabinet. She subsequently served as

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

in the second Nyrup Rasmussen cabinet, from 1994 to 1996, where she focused particularly on reform of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

policy, and compensation for previous mistreatment of

hemophiliacs Haemophilia, or hemophilia (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, ...

. She was

outed Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. It is often done for political reasons, either to instrumentalize homophobia in order to discredit political opponents or to com ...

as a lesbian in 1996 by Palle Juul-Jensen, the former head of the National Board of Health, who had clashed with Herløv Anderson and her predecessor

Torben Lund Torben Lund (born 6 November 1950 in Vejle) is a Danish politician, who served in the Folketing from 1981 to 1998"Torben Lund har forladt Socialdemokratiet". dr.dk, August 22, 2009. and in the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. He was associa ...

over AIDS policy, leading to Juul-Jensen's forced resignation in 1995. In his memoir, Juul-Jensen asked what would have been different if "the two latest Ministers of Health, not only politically but personally, had another relationship to the National Union for Gays and Lesbians". Herløv Anderson and Lund thereafter acknowledged their sexual orientations, becoming the first openly gay members of the Danish parliament. She married a man named Arne Knood Andersen in 1963 and divorced him in 1968, she has two children with him. She entered into a

registered partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

with her partner Pirthe Merete Smedegaard Knudsen since 1990, they married later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herlov Andersen, Yvonne 1942 births Living people Centre Democrats (Denmark) politicians Members of the Folketing Government ministers of Denmark Danish LGBT politicians Danish lesbians Women government ministers of Denmark Women members of the Folketing Danish Health Ministers LGBT legislators 20th-century Danish women politicians 21st-century Danish women politicians People from Sorø Municipality