Gay Capital Of Europe ?
AMSTERDAM. Ever since the popular mayor of Amsterdam Ed van Thijn, who took up
a cabinet post, was replaced by Schelto Patijn (a city mayor in Holland is not
elected but appointed by the minister for internal affairs) several
controversies affecting the Amsterdam gay community that had been simmering for
some years suddenly seem to come out into the open. First there was the
formation of a council for greater Amsterdam (the so-called "Stadsprovincie"),
divided into local councils. Strongly supported by a majority of Amsterdam city
councilmembers and Mayor-to-be of greater Amsterdam, Mr. Patijn, it turned out
that responsibility for gay policy-making would be transferred permanently to
local councils. A report published last winter however showed that in most of
the 16 local councils political attention for gay issues had deteriorated over
the past 10 years and a policy on gay rights and emancipation was either a low
priority or non-existent. In a reaction the Amsterdam chapter of the COC
informally advised its members to vote against the formation of the
"stadsprovincie". The proposal, which was heavily criticised by other
organisations as well, was eventually defeated in a referendum with over 80%
of Amsterdammers rejecting the idea. Controversies are also emerging around the
largest cruising area in Amsterdam the "Nieuwe Meer", where cruising started on
a piece of wasteland over 15 years ago. After having been ignored by politicians
for years and only after the Japanes NISSAN corporation built an office-block
near-by overlooking the area, the local council of Sloter vaart-Overtoomseveld
a few years ago started making plans to develop the area for recreation. This
meant the digging of ditches around the area (making it less accessible for
cruising gays) and building a cycle-track through the middle of the area
(making it more accessible to teenagers with bikes), measures which have
already been carried out and which are blamed for an increase in reports of
anti-gay behaviour. The situation led to several critical articles and
editorials in the Amsterdam-based gay "Out on the Streets"-newspaper(*), which
among others quoted an anonymous source within city hall saying that mayor
Patijn felt it was not his job to "help a bunch of men to have sex in public".
The articles in turn led to accusations of "gutter journalism" from a rival gay
newspaper. An invitation to Mr. Patijn for an interview from Amsterdam-based
and well established local gay radiostation MVS last week was after initially
agreeing later turned down by city hall. Although formally speaking mr. Patijn
is not responsible for Amsterdam's policy on gay issues the interview would have
been an opportunity for Mr. Patijn and the gay community to get to know each
other and maybe resolve some of the problems between Amsterdam's policy-makers
and the gay community which is, as many feel, already long overdue.
(*) "Out on the streets"(see above) is a a bi-lingual (Dutch/English)
volunteer-run gay newspaper published every two weeks in Amsterdam containing
news, views, editorials, classifieds, stories and lots of information concerning
the Amsterdam gay community. "Out on the Streets" can be picked up free of
charge in gay venues in Amsterdam and London. For more information
"Out on the streets" can be contacted at:
Out on the Streets, Rozenstraat 8, NL-1016 NX Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
phone: int-31-20-6233850, fax: int-31-20-6232870.