April 17, 2019

More rights for LGBT+ means more money

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:10 pm

According to a new study published by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Rutgers University in New Jersey and Leiden Law School, nations who give more rights to the LGBT+ community have a much higher per capita Gross domestic product (GDP) than those who foster social exclusion. Published online in the World Development journal, the study is entitled “The Relationship between LGBT Inclusion and Economic Development: Macro-Level Evidence.”

Researchers used legal and economic data from 132 countries in the periods 1966-2011, including the eight-point Global Index on Legal Recognition of Homosexual Orientation (GILRHO), which helps assess how limiting LGBT rights harms the economy. Created by Dutch law professor Kees Waaldijk, the study used the GILRHO for the first time, which includes categories such as lost labour time, lost productivity, underinvestment in human capital, and the inefficient allocation of human resources, and how they relate to the macroeconomy.

Adding just one additional point on the GILRHO scale is associated with an increase in real GDP per capita of just over USD $2000, and that estimates of the cost of exclusion suggest that 6-22 percent of this amount “could plausibly reflect the GDP costs of excluding LGBT individuals from a full range of legal rights.”

“Many people, including policymakers, may turn a blind eye to the moral argument against discrimination against LGBT individuals. But if the economy is brought up, they are more likely to use money rather than morals to justify reforming policies to protect LGBT rights,” says co-author Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. “Policymakers want to see the numbers, so here are the numbers that show the economic effect. Here’s evidence they can use to support change.”

(Link: phys.org, Photo of Gay flag by sigmaration, some rights reserved)

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May 15, 2018

Netherlands no longer in Top 10 LGBTI countries

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:01 pm

The Netherlands is no longer in the Top 10 of countries that have well regulated LGBTI rights, now sitting in eleventh place, according to the Rainbow Europe Index 2018.

One of the sticking points is not having any explicit inclusion in the law that says discriminating against transgender and intersex people is illegal. As well, Belgium is doing a better job, something that often provides a ‘wake-up call’ to the Dutch.

Malta is at the top of list, followed by Belgian in second place and Norway in third place.

(Link: parool.nl, Photo of Gay flag by sigmaration, some rights reserved)

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February 14, 2018

Amsterdam’s Homomonument gets protected status

Filed under: Architecture,Art by Orangemaster @ 6:19 pm

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Amsterdam’s Homomonument has officially received ‘municipal monument status’, which means it now has a protected status going into the future.

According to the city, the Homomonument has a high cultural value as the first memorial commemorating all gays and lesbians who have been subjected to persecution because of their homosexuality. The city would also like to believe that it is also a symbol for Amsterdam, where everybody can be themselves.

The Homomonument at the Westermarkt fits into the surrounding streets and canals, and is the site for many outdoor activities from the Gay Olympics to all kinds of demonstrations.

(Link: at5.nl, Photo of Homomonument by BoBink, some rights reserved)

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June 28, 2016

Dutchman petitions Unicode for rainbow emoji flag

Filed under: General,History by Orangemaster @ 6:00 am

Amsterdam resident Maurice Beljaars had first petitioned Twitter and then Unicode for a rainbow emoji flag, which would add a nice touch to any LGBTI-related news, instead of just using an ordinary rainbow.

Beljaars explains that the rainbow flag has been the international symbol of the gay community since the late 1970s. Unicode has already felt it was important to add recent emojis such as the croissant, cowboy and selfie, so why not the rainbow flag? Google employees have also recently made requests for emojis that better represent women in actual jobs rather than in superficial beauty situations and not too long ago many emojis with people in them became available in different skin tones.

(Link: www.nu.nl, Photo of Gay flag by sigmaration, some rights reserved)

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March 9, 2016

Utrecht unveils gay and lesbian pedestrian crossing signs

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 6:29 pm

Berlin has its ‘Ampelmann’ and ‘Ampelfrau’, Haarlem and other Dutch cities have ‘Sofie’, and now Utrecht has gay couples depicted on their pedestrian crossing signs in rainbow colours.

The city of Utrecht wants to show that gay men and women, as well as bisexual and transgender people are welcome in the city. Here’s the bright red gay one and the green lesbian one. Utrecht also has a rainbow colored pedestrian crossing.

Newspaper Metro mentioned that designing the signs cost 1200 euro, which led to online comments ranging from ‘bureaucrats are wasting our money’ and ‘where’s the sign with a straight couple’ to ‘gays and lesbians need to be treated like everyone else, signs won’t change that’. Knowing that Utrecht made the news in 2010 when a gay couple was harassed so much they were forced to move house makes one wonder if pedestrian crossing signs are really the way to go.

(Links: www.rtvutrecht.nl, www.libelle.nl, Photo of Gay flag by sigmaration, some rights reserved)

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December 27, 2012

‘No flowers for the Pope’ on Facebook gaining momentum

Filed under: Online,Religion by Orangemaster @ 2:50 pm
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After weeks of debating the ‘Zwarte Piet’ tradition during Sinterklaas, which involves blackface considered a tradition here but racist abroad, a steady number of Dutch people on Facebook are now pissed off at the Pope.

The Pope’s famous Dutch saying, “bedankt voor de bloemen” (“thanks for the flowers”), is often the first thing that pops to mind if you mention the Pope to a Dutch person. The Facebook page Geen bloemen naar de Paus (‘No flowers for the Pope’) wants to stop sending flowers to the Pope at Easter and is venting its anger at the Pope’s heteronormative Christmas speech, which angered Foreign Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans who lashed out in the media at the Pope’s ‘homophobia’:

“If every person is unique, as the Pope’s representative said in Dublin last week, then why should that unique person not have the right to stand up for their own sexual orientation? Marriage between two people of the same sex is having respect for the uniqueness of the individual.”

I for one will never, ever get over the amount of child abuse reported from the Catholic church since I was old enough to understand what it was.

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages, although some controversy remains over municipal officials who refuse to marry gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

Regardless, to quote a gay friend back in the 1990s inspired by the American’s first Bush administration: “Hate is not a family value”.

(Link: www.gaystarnews.com)

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August 2, 2012

Gay Pride canal parade to feature Turkish boat

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:33 am

For the first time, Amsterdam’s Gay Pride canal parade will feature a Dutch-Turkish boat that fits 80 people. However, the organisers say that it’s mostly gay Turkish men on the boat and that they have few lesbians. “Many women are still afraid of coming out of the closet although many of them simply don’t have an affinity with the whole Gay Pride thing,” explains one of the female organisers.

They could already be full, but the Dutch film in the link says they could use 10 more lesbians. The whole point of the boat is to show that having a Turkish background and being gay goes together in a positive way. And even though they didn’t get any entrepreneurs to sponsor the boat, they’ve only had positive responses, as “emancipation takes time”.

(Link: www.lokum.nl, Photo of Gay flag by sigmaration, some rights reserved)

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August 13, 2010

Rotterdam park gets gay sex signage

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:11 pm
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The city of Rotterdam has felt it necessary that the Kralingse Bos, a big park, get these colourful signs to warn families and the likes that gay men are getting busy (think closeted or married gay hooking up). The direction of the feet in this pictogramme is a bit confusing to those in the know. If gays are caught outside the marked zone in Rotterdam, they will be fined. The sign also implies that lesbians stay at home and watch telly. That was sarcasm.

Ironically, many of the places where straight couples and parties of three or more have sex in the woods or near the beach are illegal, and people just get fined. They should stay home and watch telly as well.

The person in charge of this typical show of Dutch tolerance was quoted as saying, “everybody has the right to have fun”. Straights, however, don’t have their own signs or special party places. Interesting reverse discrimination.

(Link and photo: rijnmond.nl)

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June 21, 2010

‘Homophobic’ Beenie Man replaces Snoop Dogg at festival

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 4:50 pm
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Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man has now been signed to replace Snoop Dogg at The Hague’s Parkpop festival on Sunday 27 June, which we wrote about a few days ago. However, replacing an artist who has never had any crowd problems in Europe with an artist that has been cancelled several times for his anti-gay lyrics, is beyond anyone’s comprehension.

Wikipedia mentions Beenie Man’s song ‘Damn’ with “I’m dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays” as well as an explanation from the artist that ‘gay’ in his country refers to child molesters. Although it is a very bad choice of words internationally, I also know that Russians have something similar, which gets lost in its cultural translation as well. But OK, The Hague isn’t booking a Russian artist here.

No matter the real reasons or the context, Beenie Man is way more controversal that Snoop Dogg and has been cancelled much more often. Beenie Man was banned from The Hague two years ago for homohobic lyrics, which makes the country wonder what kind of susbstances the bureaucrats down there are on these days.

UPDATE: Beenie Man is not coming either!

We’ll keep you posted!

(Link: dutchnews.nl, Photo: gayspirituality)

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January 6, 2010

Gay wine: bad taste or good marketing?

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:17 pm
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Slowly but surely Dutch consumers are grasping the idea of enjoying wine and matching it up with food, wine fans keep telling me. Despite the lack of proper tasting and buying wine by numbers instead of actually being interested in pesky details like regions and vines, Dutch business people have tons of creative ways to get people drinking wine without thinking too hard.

That said, the idea of a ‘Chardongay’, which isn’t even a Chardonnay but a mix of Chenin Blanc and Colombard, while the red version (getting confused now) is straight Cabernet Sauvignon, pun intended, just sounds, well, blah. Vinamis, the company who thought this up apparently couldn’t find an acceptable cheap Chardonnay (bless you). And since we’re driving through cliché-ville, what about a rosé? It’s coming out later, as well as the bubbly.

I think it’s a slightly funny idea that is akin to drinking Arrogant Frog wine (see photo). It leaves lesbians out in the cold because hey, they don’t drink anyways (cliché) and the wine is going for the funny name. But, OK Arrogant Frog isn’t that bad and it’s cheap.

(Link: telegraaf.nl, Photo of Arrogant Frog wine by Martin Ujlaki, some rights reserved)

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