The comeback of homophobia in the Netherlands

One of the reasons the Dutch semi-secretly (and sometimes kind of annoyingly) think that their country is better than the rest of the world is the extreme tolerance and acceptance of the LGBTQ crowd. We like to think that homophobia in the Netherlands is a thing of the past,  therefore the shock is real when in the past few days, 3 nauseating crimes aimed at gay people happened in our little country which is the poster-boy for tolerance and encouragement of individuality.

quote-i-hate-the-word-homophobia-it-s-not-a-phobia-you-are-not-scared-you-are-an-asshole-morgan-freeman-62-28-34

Two gay men molested on the ferry to Amsterdam Central

If being on that shitty ferry in the middle of the night isn’t enough misery, two gay guys were also molested during the little boat trip from Amsterdam North to the Central Station in the night of Saturday to Sunday. One of the men was kicked in the face multiple times in a fight that started when the two men were verbally abused by two ‘lichtgetinte’ men (‘lichtgetinte’ is what the police say in their description when it’s Moroccan or Turkish fellas wanted for a crime).  The police have the number plate number of the scooter they fled on (oh the stereotyping) and called for the perps to step forward.

Posted by the Amsterdam Police on their Facebook page
One of the victims… Posted by the Amsterdam Police on their Facebook page

Homophobic flyers in Amsterdam

Sadly we’ve kind have gotten used to gay men being assaulted by criminal youths, also in the Netherlands. But anti-gay flyers?!

homophobia in the Netherlands
Photo by @AchmedBaadoud/Twitter

Homophobic flyers were left in mail boxes in Amsterdam West on Sunday, obviously causing a shitstorm in Amsterdam and in Dutch media.

The flyer urges Muslims, Christians and Jews to unite against homosexuality. It quotes texts from the Bible, the Torah and the Quran stating that all these books are against gays. Thereby nicely uniting several religions for the first time in centuries.

It seems to be some Turkish sect leader called Harun Yayha and his followers who are the ones to be blamed for this one. Here’s their twitter account in Netherlands if you want to check if they are really batshit crazy.

In case you’re some hating Muslim who is now fuming because this is one of those ‘poor muslims getting hatred for beating gays’ articles again: don’t worry, your not alone in this one, because:

Homophobia in the Netherlands: Nazi’s paint over ‘gay’ pedestrian crossing in Leiden

Just like many other cities in the world Leiden also has a ‘Gaybrapad’. And now apparently in our sweet old beloved Leiden, filthy old nazi’s have taken to the street and painted over this innocent icon of love and pedestrian safety. Here’s a little clip of the cowards:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLroY37JE4Y[/embedyt]

There are 52 ways to arrange a deck of cards but Nazi’s show there are infinite ways to be stupid.

Well maybe it’s not fair to call them Nazi’s, since Nazi’s were usually better prepared and knew that you don’t raise your left arm (at 2:00) if you want to bring a tribute to racism and retardness. Ugh…

Anyways, just shows that both radical islamists and retarded Nazi’s can agree on some points – which is no shock given their history across the world. All this highlights is that there is still a fight to be fought when it comes to total acceptance of the LGBTQ people.

 

Abuzer van Leeuwen 🇳🇱
Abuzer van Leeuwen 🇳🇱http://www.abuzervanleeuwen.nl
Abuzer founded DutchReview a decade ago because he thought expats needed it and wanted to make amends for the Dutch cuisine. He has a Masters in Political Science and IT but somewhere always wanted to study history or good old football. He also a mortgage in the Netherlands and will happily tell you too how to get one. Born and raised in Rotterdam, Abuzer now lives in Leiden but is always longing back to his own international year in Italy.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Please rethink using the term “retarded” as an adjective. Highly offensive. Language is a powerful tool and we all need to be mindful at all times, especially when writing a post re: violence against a marginalized group.

    • Agreed. I used to use the word myself, as an insult, until I realize that people who are actually retarded don’t deserve to be put in a negative light like that. Thus I stopped using it except literally.

    • “lame”: A reference to difficulty walking or moving. The term has since been adopted into urban slang to generally refer to something or someone as “meaningless” or “without worth.””
      “moron”: is a term once used in psychology to denote mild intellectual disability.
      “idiot”: In 19th- and early 20th-century medicine and psychology, an “idiot” was a person with a very severe intellectual disability.
      “blind”: “you are blind to my criticism” vs. “this poor boy is blind on both eyes”

      and more….

      CONTEXT!!! Please, use your time efficiently, read, get the context, react accordingly. Don’t witch hunt.

      Meme related: http://i.imgur.com/JWT9kpo.jpg

      • I will have to politely disagree with you. I would like to point out that you have conveniently left out a few choice terms that you would dare not type, no matter what the context. As someone who has worked with many people with varying physical and mental capabilities, I can tell you that none of them would like this word used to describe them. Please do some reading and consider my point of view. Feel free to start here:
        http://www.motionball.com/nogoodway/ for an overview of why this term is harmful no matter the context it is used. Again language is a very powerful tool and we have to be mindful of the words we choose and what they perpetuate, no matter how subtle or insignificant it may seem.

        Enjoy your day

        • I understand the concern and I get the point. However, I’ll still point out that context is a part of language tool set. Language doesn’t consist purely from words and indeed it’s a powerful thing, but you are actually trying to limit it’s vastness and depth.

          Yes, today’s health care system uses word retarded to describe a certain mental disability, BUT – the word was not invented for that. Retarded is a fare term used in engineering, in physics and other places.

          “The noun is recorded from 1788 in the sense “retardation, delay;””

          Retardation is an easy term you can apply to many areas and mean no offense to anyone, because you want to describe a certain slow deterioration of a state of something or process or other sorts of delayed processes.

          So, unfortunately, when you come around and start creating a 1 to 1 connection between “retarded” word and mental disability (even though it’s one of it’s usages and just happen to be popularized within mental health) – this actually limits the language and this actually eliminates the potential of the word being used in different areas and depend on the context of the discussion without any offensive meaning.

          Enjoy your day too and a small tip for the next time you do baking: don’t forget to make sure your dough is retarded! It makes for a better end result!

          • I appreciate your perspective, however will still have to disagree. I would like to remind you of the initial point you brought up with me: Context. I find it interesting that you chose to divert your post toward giving examples of the use of the word in contexts that do not apply to this article and the issue that I raised. I am familiar with the various uses of the word (another example: engine retarder breaks) but again am referring to how the word was used in the above article.

      • Yes Jeremy, this is one of the main things that stood out to me when I read the article. In fact, I felt so strongly that I actually made an account so I could share my perspective. I don’t think it should be a stretch to discuss the language used in articles, especially when it is on the subject matter of violence being perpetuated to a marginalized group. My comment was directed at the author to challenge him to critically reflect on the words he chooses to use when he writes, that is all.

  2. Religion is a problem in civilized society. As an atheist I feel that the world needs to abolish slowly the mentally of God period. Man invented God. Man invented the bible, Man made up “Jesus”. No evidence proves any of these things. Without Religion there’d be a lot more peace on Earth. The second problem is the monetary system . Money has divided the world as well. If it didn’t exist, Slavery, Capitalism, Communism and Socialism wouldn’t exist. The world’s population wouldn’t be as it is today and I seriously doubt that inventions would have come about. So both Money and Religion are oppressive forces that continue the hatred in this world. The one reason why Religion exists is control of people and the freedom to be and do what they want. By enforcing religious codes they oppress others by controlling the freedom to be happy and enjoy their lives without fear of some dogmatic theocratic society murdering and jailing them. Since Islam, Judaism and Christianity believe in God and obedience to God and the rules created, more people are killed and imprisoned in the name of that “God”.

  3. The so-called “nazis” were fratboys playing out some prank. They reported themselves to police when the video came out. Stupid and wrong, but not the kind of people who would attack anybody imho.

  4. I used to live in Netherlands Amsterdam from 2005-2010 since I studies there. I went one day to Rotterdam with a gay friend on an exhibition opening and from a station to a gallery space which was walking distance from the station, we were verbally abused numerous times by Muslims with threats of physical violence. It was a truly scary experience. Netherlands has a problem for quite a long time, I wonder if anyone is attending it?! I hope you started citizenship revocations or smth. to make Netherlands more secure for living.

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