Now, after seven years, they hope to amend the law with the help of the state Church of Denmark, which appointed a commission to study the issue.
Bent Hansen, a gay activist who worked on the partnership law and now manages the AIDS hotline, predicts the law will allow churches to bless partnerships, but not register them.
"It's a compromise, but that's all right," he said.
Ivan Larsen, a state church priest, said the church would never include church blessings for homosexuals in its "black book" of official rituals, but would give such blessings an unofficial nod.
"It is one step forward," said Larsen, who performed church blessings until bishops forbade them in the late 1980s.
Both Hansen and Larsen say a church blessing should be the same for homosexual and heterosexual couples.
"The love is the same, the commitment is the same," Larsen said. "Thus, it should be the same ceremony."
But the commission's recommendations will reflect what members see as the basis of marriage, said Niels Thomsen, commission chairman and head master of the Training Institute for Pastors in Service.
"If you say marriage is defined by family, it underlines the difference between marriage and partnership," Thomsen said. "If love is central to marriage, you can say they are parallel."
The law creates a distinction by not allowing homosexuals in partnerships to adopt children. But lines have blurred as homosexuals have begun raising families.
Thomsen said the commission would propose two blessings, in part to reach a practical solution: "Many heterosexuals will feel offended if their marriage is put in the same category as homosexual partnerships. As a way to not offend, I prefer a different blessing."
He said homosexuals, like heterosexuals, prefer a civil ceremony. He estimated that no more than 10 percent of those who register, about 30 couples annually, would seek a blessing.
Thomsen also said homosexuals want bishops to allow a church blessing as a signal the church accepts partnerships.
About 50 of about 2,000 state priests have gay partners, and about 10 have registered, Larsen said.
Dorte Bennedsen, a Social Democrat who steered the bill through Parliament in 1989, said she supports church blessings for partners.
She also supports registration for foreign homosexual couples if they come from countries with partnership laws similar to Denmark's. Several Nordic countries allow registered partnerships.
Lawmakers originally required one partner to be a Dane out of "fear that everyone would flock to Denmark," Bennedsen said.
Hansen said activists did political and media maneuvering to get Parliament to reconsider church blessings.
First, they contacted a progressive bishop to pitch the idea, but he couldn't get support from other bishops.
Next step, the press: "Every little local paper in Denmark had an opinion. The bishops realized they couldn't ignore the wish of the people."
In 1995 the bishops appointed its committee, comprised of researchers knowledgeable in theology. They will report this year.
Larsen, one of the original 11 couples to register in 1989, doubts he would seek a church blessing: "God is blessing my partnership and I don't think I need an official ceremony."
Yesterday
Push for equality: The impact of registered partnerships for same-sex couples in Denmark, the first country to legalize such unions.
Today
Related stories in today’s [Business] section online
Tomorrow
Archive of previous same-sex stories