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I have signed the petition for dual Danish Citizenship and sincerely hope that it passes the Danish Parliament.

I was just in Copenhagen this past week and on Wednesday the 30th of April.
I happened to have my television on in my hotel room when part of this citizen debate in parliament was being aired on the television.

I listened intently as the debate went on with the various parties offering their views and hopefully the views of their constituents; I liked and appreciated what Jørgen Poulsen from Ny Alliance had to say.

This is my story and I hope that you will take a few minutes out of your busy day and read it.
I was born in Copenhagen to Danish parents in December of 1959 and when I was three months old we moved to Aarhus where my father’s job for SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) took us. In 1965 my father’s career took us to SAS’s head quarters in Stockholm, I was 5 ½ years old.

When my parents moved our family to Sweden they purchased a summer house in Denmark to which we returned every summer.
I came ‘home’; home to family, the mischief of cousins, mormor’s frikadeller, farmor’s is, Tante Gurli’s Flæskesteg, Jorbærgrød, Koldskål, Morfar and Farfar’s loving gaze’s, en dukkert i vandet paa Ore Strand osv.

I was able to spend every summer through the age of 22 in Denmark holding various summer jobs as I got older.
I started my elementary school education in Sweden where we stayed until half way through my 5th grade year of school.
As my father got promoted up the corporate ladder our next move found my family relocated to Bangkok, Thailand.

It was here that at the age of I think 10, I started attending an American School; The International School of Bangkok.
I completed my 10th grade year in Bangkok when my father was promoted again and we moved to Singapore where in 1978 I graduated from the Singapore American School. (My parents lived in Singapore until 1985.)
Upon graduation from High School I had attended Swedish School for a few years, attended an American School grade 5-12 and had received the equivalent of a Danish Studenter Exam from an American School system.

I had never attended Danish school and while I speak Danish fluently and read it with no problem; my spelling is atrocious, thus this email in English and therefore not being sent to any media outlet/blog.

My parents, at a considerable expense I may add, decided that it was in my best interest to go to an American University.
In 1978 the options for an English University Education in Denmark were non-existent and my lack of a Danish education would more or less have meant a repeat of several years on the Danish Gymnasium level.
Within three weeks of my 18th birthday I left my family in Singapore and moved to California to attend College in the USA , starting in January of 1978.

Now Fast Forwarding many years, I fall in love, get married, get permanent U.S. Residency and eventually and have two children.

At this point I have for years been working in the USA and paid taxes into ‘the’ U.S. System.

In 1991 my daughter is born and shortly thereafter a Canadian friend of mine made me aware of, at the time, current U.S. inheritance laws which basically stated if my spouse predeceased me and my children in turn would inherit from me ‘the foreign national’ they would be charged a much higher inheritance tax than normal; somewhere between 2 and 3 times higher than normal.

I felt that was very unfair, I was not a U.S. Citizen and could not vote; I had no voice.

My heart was telling me that it was not fair for me to have paid into the U.S. system for all these years to have my children be penalized in their inheritance.

My son was born in 1995 and in 1997 I finally gave up the internal struggle that I had with myself and reached the very difficult decision to apply for my American Citizenship which was granted in 1998, twenty years after I arrived in the USA.

The U.S. did not ask for my Danish passport when I became a U.S. Citizenship, my Danish Passport while not being used, expired in 2007 - that day was one of the most difficult in my life.

After 36 years of Service to Scandinavian Airlines my dad retired in 1992.
The pro’s, for me, an incredible career for my father, an incredible life experience for all of us, the con’s; to this day I live half way around the world from my parents and extended family.

I had airline life in my blood, so in 1983 I became a flight attendant for a U.S. Air Carrier, I could not imagine a life not being able to see my family in Denmark and travel the world as often as I had grown accustomed to flying as a dependent/child of an airline employee.

For the last two years I have been in Denmark at least 2-3 times a month for work and it has been nice.
Regardless of where I have been, the life I have lived etc.
I am a Dane through and through.
My parents and extended family is in Denmark.

I struggle every day with my decision to give up my Danish passport because of my children as I could one day be considered a foreigner in my homeland should I one day want to return for an extended period of time.

As the debate went on last Wednesday, the various concerns seemed to me for a large part to center around obligatory military service along with the what if’s in the event of military conflict between the two countries.

The likelihood of military conflict between the U.S. and Denmark are zero to none.
How has the other 22 EU countries that have allowed their citizens dual citizenship dealt with this issue? Denmark, please deal with it and do what is right for people who are Danes by birthright and for reasons other than the obvious had to chose to give up their Danish Citizenship.

Charlotte - formerly known also as 31-12-59-2074 (and never will be forgotten)