In the autumn of 1983, a group worked under the National Association for Gays and Lesbians (LBL) - today LGBT+ Denmark on getting a sports offer established. This led to the first swimming course being held on 5 January 1984 - 30 gays and 3 lesbians were registered.

The swimming course was the forerunner of the sports association that was later founded - and thereby Pan Idræt's swimming department, Copenhagen Mermates, is the foundation on which other sports are later built.

Paper about the foundation of the Swedish Sports Association PAN

Image: The introduction to the convening of the founding general meeting.

On 6 May 1984 there was a founding general meeting at Tingbjerg School in the Sports Association PAN. What today is Pan Idræt Copenhagen. The weekend before, the main board of LBL had approved the establishment of the association under the national association - with the approval came a grant of DKK 5,000 for holding swimming courses, as well as a subsidy for holding a sports weekend in the autumn of 1984 at Gerlev Sports College. The Gerlev weekends were a central focal point for the association well into the 1990s.

The notice to the founding general meeting - Minutes from the founding general meeting incl. the first statutes.

The main architect behind the establishment of Pan Idræt was Erik Fjellerad, who also became the association's first chairman. He was a school teacher and taught e.g. in German and sports. He also became the association's first swimming coach.

As chairman, he fought countless battles to get Pan Idræt to become part of organized sports, where the new association is met with prejudice and reluctance, e.g. teased the AIDS issue.

There was an extremely controversial case - in what was called the Copenhagen Swimming Union (KSU) - where the admission of the association was delayed, but after a tireless effort from Erik Fjellerad, the other swimming clubs supported Pan Idræt's admission - and the board of the swimming union is dismissed.

Erik Fjellerad was carried by the political currents of the time, when work was being done to create a space for a separate culture for gays and lesbians - and for him it was a natural link with the foundation of a sports association for what was then called the gay environment.

In 1986, Pan Idræt Aarhus was established as its own independent association with its own articles of association.

In 1989, Pan Idræt entered the European scene, when it helped to found European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation (EGLSF) - which is a European umbrella organization of sports clubs similar to Pan Idræt. For several periods, members from Pan Idræt have been an active part of the management of EGLSF.

Image: Erik Fjellerad (1988). Image is copyrighted - originally published in Politiken. Lars Hansen/Ritzau Scanpix

The picture: Pan Idræt's first badge (logo)

At the beginning of the 1990s, Pan Idræt focused on keeping the association active - a project on "Pan Idræt in the 90s" was launched - with a major focus on the day-to-day running of the individual sports.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the number of members was calculated at a total of 200 members.

In the latter half of the 1990s, a major structural discussion begins, which in 1998 means a decentralization of part of the economy to the departments (the establishment of departmental funds) - so that there is no central disagreement about the prioritization of quota income and expenses. From this point on, a distinction is made between the central finances (the joint fund) and the finances linked to the individual sports (the departmental funds).

At the ordinary general meeting on April 4, 2000, there is a debate about Pan Idræt's future - during a statute amendment proposal that board members no longer have to be members of LBL, a very long discussion starts about the construction that Pan Idræt was an association embedded in LBL. The debate leads to the proposal being withdrawn and the conductor putting to a vote whether to work for a split from LBL. The motion loses one vote.

But efforts had been set in motion in Pan Idræt, which did not allow themselves to be stopped. Pan Idræt was moving away from LBL, which was then a conglomerate of different activities - and thereby interests.

Picture on the left: Pan Idræt's logo from 2004.

18 December 2000 was a very special day for Pan Idræt, when an extraordinary general meeting approved the spin-off agreement that had been entered into between LBL and Pan Idræt.

After longer talks, it was agreed that Pan Idræt should no longer be included as an association in LBL. The split took place by putting forward a joint statute proposal that severed the legal, economic, political and organizational ties to LBL.

The result was that Pan Idræt's included the areas that had hitherto been the association's task internally in LBL since its foundation in 1984 - to offer sports to the rainbow environment as well as the sports political voice that spoke to promote diversity and inclusion of all people in sports.

Already at the beginning of the 00s, it is clear that financial management and responsibility are essential for a healthy association. So the association hires a business manager, so that bookkeeping, payment rules and member administration are under control.

Pan Idræt hosted the Eurogames in 2003, which was a resounding sporting and social success - many friendships were made in Europe. And so it was a great financial success for Pan Idræt. The Eurogames profit became the basic capital for the stable economy that characterizes Pan Idræt to this day.

In 2004, the time had come for serious digitization, i.a. the association gets an actual website - and the first central visual identity is decided. This is where the current logo (Pan Idræt skjoldet) was adopted by the general assembly as a common identity.

The WorldOut Games in Copenhagen in 2009 was another great sporting success - but the planning took place under a different auspices of Pan Idræt, which caused an unrealistic strain on the association's volunteers - and from the autumn of 2009, a great fatigue could be felt, which brought the association into a fundamental crisis with declining membership to less than 400 members and sports that closed down.

Picture: Former chairman Carsten Friis Overby and deputy chairman Mads Kildegaard Larsen after receiving the Dannebrog flag (2014). Image is copyrighted - originally published in Out & About. Chris Christophersen/Royal Press Photo.

The association had ended in a negative spiral. One summer evening during the Gay Games in Cologne (2010), a group of members discussed the serious situation facing the association. There was agreement that something had to be done to set a new positive course for the association.

The answer came in the form of a special process, where the general meeting set up its own Vision and Structure Committee - which had no reference to the board. The committee had to be calm enough to think ahead to solutions. The whole of 2011 was characterized by many meetings with new visions with great member involvement and major legal clean-up work in the association's rules.

As a prelude to the holding of the first EuroGames in Eastern Europe in Budapest) - summer 2012 - the general assembly in 2011 chose to make a donation to EGLSF's support program Outreach, which is a program that provides financial support to athletes and managers who have few financial resources. A donation of €1 per member.

At the general meeting in 2012, the Vision and Structure Committee presented a comprehensive proposal for new articles of association which aimed to fundamentally change the association. Clear roles were defined in the association, the general meeting was given full authority over the entire association, the legal and organizational structure was made completely clear and a number of initiatives were presented to strengthen the management of the association.

It was laid down in the articles of association that the central governing document in the association was the annual programme, where the general meeting determines the priorities for the coming year.

The general meeting unanimously adopted the proposal - which set Pan Idræt on a completely new course with increasing membership and the establishment of several new sports.

The time had also come to replace spreadsheets and postal collections with giro cards as the basis for the membership register and dues collection. A fully digitized membership system was purchased on the recommendation of DGI. At the same time, the association began to centrally develop several common digital solutions, including in particular to support member communication.

2012 is also the year when the founding general meeting of Pan Idræt Frederiksberg is held in the Studenterhuset in Copenhagen. History from 1984 is almost about to repeat itself, when Pan Idræt Frederiksberg is applying to be approved as a public education sports association in Frederiksberg Municipality - initially there was not much understanding of the project. But after inquiries from the association to various members of the municipal council, something happens in the matter - and the approval falls into place. The association is then included in Frederiksberg Sports Union. Today, both the municipality and the sports union are good partners for the association.

The EGLSF's annual multi-sport event - the EuroGames - was to be held in Budapest in 2012, marking the first time the event took place outside Western Europe. Concerns arose during the EGLSF General Assembly in Frankfurt in 2011 over homophobia in Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Instead of support, the organizers met opposition from politicians. Leading clubs, including Pan Idræt, sought solutions. Pan Idræt sent an emergency response specialist to advise and our athletes were accompanied by then Minister of Culture Uffe Elbæk, whose presence prompted the Hungarian authorities to provide the event with police protection. The event was a success despite a few instances of homophobia. Pan Idræt's active role strengthened the association's status and showed leadership in Europe.

Pan Idræt's 30th birthday in 2014 was held with a multi-sport event - Pan Games - where other sports clubs came from all over Europe. The convention was held at the same time as Copenhagen Pride.

2014 was also the year when Pan Idræt was given its official Dannebrog banner The Danish Society at a ceremony in Holmes Church - the banner was presented by HRH Princess Elisabeth. Later that year, the association's official Rainbow Banner was acquired - these two banners constitute Pan Idræt's official banners and are used at all major association events - both at home and abroad.

Already in 2015, there were such significant results from the association's new structure and strategy that Pan Idræt won the national DGI competition DM in Association Development and in 2016 Pan Idræt was Association of the Year in DGI Greater Copenhagen.

De fælles erfaringer med Copenhagen Pride fra 2014 dannede baggrund for etableringen af et stort fælles projekt - Copenhagen 2021 - som var en mangfoldigheds- og inklusionsbegivenhed med afholdelse af EuroGames og WorldPride på samme tid i København i sommeren 2021 under kongelige protektion af H.K.H. Kronprinsessen - i dag H.M. Dronningen.

Pan Idræt indgår i 2024 aftale med Rigsarkivet om overdragelse af foreningens arkiv til bevarelse for eftertiden, da det vurderes at have national betydning

At the spring general meeting in 2024, the first workshop was held to spread Pan Idræt's community to the whole country.

Sources: Pan Idræt's archive and interview.