Increasing intolerance

Hm… worrying trend of increasing intolerance in the Netherlands toward homosexuals reported in the paper today.

In recent weeks there have been repeated incidents of assaults targeted at homosexuals in the country. In one province, a couple of years ago there were only a dozen incidents of homophobia related crimes, now there are a hundred. Especially in and around the big cities, ironically, there have been increasing instances of verbal abuse, and at other times spitting, to the extent that couples don’t dare to walk hand in hand on the streets. Activists say the problem is related to ‘sham tolerance’: “In principle people have no problem with homosexuality, as long as they don’t see anything of it.” At schools, there’s been a noticeable increase in the use of ‘gay’ as a swear word. Teachers report having to tell gay pupils and colleagues to hide their identities for personal protection.

Now that elections are coming up (Nov 22), some parties have taken put in extra effort to raise awareness about homosexual emancipation. The ho-le-bi (homosexual, lesbian and bisexual) organisation COC produced Gayvote—a website which informs voters which party does more for the gay population in general.

As predictable, the Christian parties, despite their claims to uphold virtues and values and championing social decency and unity, do not offer much. Let’s not forget the incumbent prime minister (proudly) admitted that he voted against the act legalising homosexual marriage.

The Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid) seems to be more active in this area, and wants to introduce harsher punishments for homopobia- related crimes, and wants to work toward the recognition of registered partnership through the European Union. Also GroenLinks (GreenLeft), which has done a lot in the past for the emancipation of homosexuals, started a campaign entitled “Hands off our gays” [“Poten af van onze homo’s”.] The party actually has an English language site worth looking at, and a summary of its activities in the past year (also in English). Did you know:

“The word cruising originates from the Dutch language (‘cruisen’), was exported into American/ English, and re-imported into Dutch.”

The GreenLeft party also produced this revolutionary proposal to abolish the male/female demarcation [in the public sphere]:

“Gender registration is considered to be a proper way to recognise a person. […]The systematic gender registration that we have in our societies only shows that gender is still a basis for discrimination.”

Another gay-interest webpage produced a list of all gays/lesbians who are candidates in the parliamentarian election.