LGBT rights in the Faroe Islands effect on 1 July 2017. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in the Faroe Islands since 1933, when it was legalized in all parts of the Kingdom of Denmark. At that time, the age of consent was set at 18 for male same-sex relations. While Denmark (including the County of Greenland) lowered the age of consent to 15 in 1977, making it gender-neutral, the autonomous Faroe Islands did not change its law until 1988. Denmark legalised same-sex marriage in 2012 and Greenland's identical marriage law took into effect on 1 April 2016, but a similar attempt had been rejected in
Flag of the Faroe Islands of the Norwegian flag, with the fimbriated cross. The flag proportion is usually 5:7. White symbolises the creators of the flag, the foam of the sea and the pure, radiant sky of the Faroe Islands, while the old Faroese blue and red colours are reminiscent of other Scandinavian and Nordic flags; representing the Faroe Islands' bonds with other Nordic countries. The modern Faroese flag was devised in 1919 by Jens Oliver Lisberg and others while they were studying in Copenhagen. The first time Merkið was raised in the Faroe Islands was on 22 June that year in Fámjin on the