Inspired by the UN Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Axel and Eigil, with a small group of friends he founded in June 1949 at Ålborg the first formal organizationin Denmark for homosexuals, "Forbunder af 1948" (The Association of 1948), later called "National Union of Gays and Lesbians" and in 1949 launched the gay magazine Vennen (The Friend).

A few months later Axel was fired from his job, lost his apartment and was exluded from various positions. They moved to Copenhaegn and Axel was president of the Forbundet until 1952.

Since 1950 he owned with Eigil a small publishing company, the International Modelfoto Service (IMS), which produced and discretely sold photos of nude men. The IMS was run from premises that also housed Vennen. In the same year they both changed their family name to Axgil (Axel + Eigil), to express thus their felling to be a regularly married couple.

In March 1955 both were arrested and confined in isolation for 11 months then sentenced to 12 and 18 months of prison, respectively, for distribution of material which, "although not obscene may be deemed a commercial speculation with a sensual intent".

The police search of the premises of Vennen and the IMS led to the arrest of a large number of sexually actie gay men and triggered the so-called Pornography Scandal.

In 1954 the Axgils founded The International Homosexual World Organization (IHWO) which mainly worked through correspondence between individual members.

In 1968-69 the IHWO published the magazine UNI with articles in seven languages. In 1970 the IHWO successfully appealed to Willy Brandt, the German Federal Chancellor, to discontinue seizure by German authrities of pornographic materia mailed from Denmark to individuals in Germany.

The International Committee for Sexual Equality (ISCE) and the Danish and Dutch national organizations for homosexuals kept a certain distance from the IHWO, which ceased its activities in 1970.

On Suday October 1st 1989, at the Town Hall of Copenhagen, Axel and Eigil Axgil were the first gay couple in Denmark and in the world to enter a registered partnership according to the Danish statute on registered partnership between coupes of the same sex. Danish legislators did in fact approve a law giving homosexuals all the rights and obligations of marriage, except adopting a child or obtaining semen for conception.

Source: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, Routledge, London, 2001 - article by Bent Hansen - et alii