Axel Axgil, a gay-rights pioneer who helped make Denmark the first nation to legalize same-sex partnerships, has died. The 96-year-old Axgil passed away in a hospital in Copenhagen on Saturday from complications from a fall. In 1989, he and his partner, Eigil, and 10 other gay couples exchanged vows after they fought to make Denmark allow same-sex civil unions. Eigil Axgil died in 1995. In the 1950s, they were sentenced to short prison terms for pornography charges after running a gay modeling agency.
