LGBT’s in the Netherlands
LGBT’s in the Netherlands
On the national evening of the Dutch participants they informed the others about the situation of the LGBT people in the Netherlands. The speech consisted of two parts: the legal situation and the social acceptation of LGBT’s in the Netherlands.
Legal situation
The legal situation of the Dutch LGB’s is among the best situations there is worldwide. In 1998, partnership laws were introduced. Three years later, the civil marriage was also opened for two people of the same gender. On the first day of april 2001, Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, closed the first marriage between two gays and the first marriage between two women in international history. This was an important milestone for the gay rigths movement in the Netherlands. But then, the legal situation could be improved a lot more. This spring, a bill passed the parlement, which granted lesbian mums who are having a baby together, the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Unfortunately, the legal situation of transgenders in the Netherlands is lacking behind. To change the gender in the passport, one has to have had a full sex change operation. It is also not possible to be in between male or female; eveyone has to make an explicit choice. Financial issues and legislation are also not clear, and a code of practice like the one that is there in England, does not exist.
Social acceptation
It’s a pity to ruin the ideas that other countries have of the LGBT life in the Netherlands, but the Netherlands aren’t LGBT heaven. The good legislation does not automatically lead to social acceptation and an LGBT friendly atmosphere. Not everyone embraces sexual diversity. For example, a recent Dutch study shows that 22 percent of the Dutch population rejects gay marriage, one-third thinks that gays should not be able to adopt children and between 30 and 50 percent of the population finds it offending when two men or two women kiss each other on the streets, while only 8 percents considers these acts offending when it concerns a heterosexual couple.
Also, in the Netherlands the reports of antigay violence are rising. For example, after the gay pride of 2007, some gays got beaten up in Amsterdam and Haarlem, and a month before that there was a violent encounter between some heterosexual men and a lesbian couple in Nijmegen.
Much less is known about the social acceptability of bisexual people living in the Netherlands and the attitudes towards transgenders. Survey studies do not include any questions about these issues up till now. The sad news it that we did have a transgender murder last year, although the circumstances were not totally clear. The murder did woke up, in some way, the gay community.
Conclusion
To summarize the preceding, we concluded on the Dutch evening that the legal situation of the Netherlands is better than the ones of the other participants. But, unfortunetely, good laws do not garuantee a discrimination-free and diversity-embracing atmosphere. Social acceptance remains an important and hard-to-reach goal. The social situation of the bisexual and trandgenders is unclear at the moment due to a lack of research, and definitely in need of attention. For the last group, the legal situation is not good, and should be improved in the near future.
elephant @ October 20, 2007