Hans van der Kamp

I guess when a party lasts too long, it turns sour. Although the atmosphere in the city was still very good, it started to become very clear what this year’s theme was really about. Lately there has been a lot of debate about the increase of violence towards gays. This is rightfully brought to our attention as a reason for concern. Yesterday however it became quite clear that gay rights activists blame the mounting violence on the stronger influence of Islam on our society.

What a pity. Christians do not have a very good history when it comes to accepting gays or lesbians either. Tolerant behavior today seems to be completely out of fashion and this attitude is certainly not restricted to specific religious groups in society. “Christian” hooligans turn soccer matches into blood baths quite frequently. We the law abiding citizens have to pay for the armies of policemen to prevent that from happening every other weekend. Focusing all attention on Islam is asking for more trouble in an already very troubled society.

So I went around asking gays and lesbians what they thought of our right wing extremist Rita Verdonk and I could not find one person who was against her politics based on Islamaphobia. (Okay, it was not scientific research; I only asked about ten people, but still..)

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to introduce gay marriage and our politicians can say out loud that they are gay without losing votes; now that is an accomplishment to be really proud of. Many Islamic religious representatives in our country have strongly condemned violence towards gays and that is very hopeful.

In the 1970s gay bashing was a much more common phenomenon than it is today. I was working as a volunteer for the COC (our main gay rights foundation) at that time and I was often sent out to talk to representatives of the police departments to remind them that gays and lesbians had rights too and that police officers should not look the other way when a gay person was beaten up by a group of moronic youngsters who thought they represented the better half of society.

In 1973 I was beaten up on train station for kissing a male friend on the cheek. I know what they are talking about and experiences like that can haunt you for the rest of your life, but most of the violence that we define as gay bashing takes place in cruising zones or parks after midnight. I have nothing against cruising zones; it is a nice opportunity to pick up partners if you only have sex in mind, but walking your dog as a heterosexual senior citizen in these same areas is quite dangerous too.

As a rule adolescents are most likely to participate in gay bashing. 30 years ago these adolescents came from villages belonging to an area we now refer to as our Bible Belt. Today maybe 60-80% of these same groups of adolescents are Muslims, but they act identical to their Christian predecessors. We solved that old problem through education. For the new, identical problem, we apparently need different, more harsh solutions. That sounds pretty stupid to me. Let me express my sincere hope that gay activists will not permanently join the fast growing league of Islamaphobes.

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True citizens of Amsterdam like a bit of uproar and theatrics and that is just what Gay Pride is, so everybody is in an excellent mood when the Canal Parade starts. Boats populated by gays and lesbians (but a lot of heterosexuals too) fill our canals; colorful creatures flashing their bodies and dancing to a strange mix of music.

Most inhabitants of Amsterdam do even show up on a rainy Canal Parade, but it really helps when the sun is shining. Today was such a day and the atmosphere was exuberant. It was incredibly hard to find a free spot to photograph, but I found one thanks to three very old ladies who had taken chairs from their homes early in the morning to park them on the sidewalk to make sure they would not lose their spot to a tourist before the show was on at 14:00.

I am posting two pictures now and I will shoot some more today. Tomorrow I will try to compile a gallery with the best pictures of these three incredible days.

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I had planned a three day shoot for this year’s Gay Pride to hopefully add some pictures for an upcoming Amsterdam exhibit. The first event I visited was called Grey Pride. This is a good start, I thought. Senior gays and lesbians celebrating. I will not have to feel too much out of place between those well-trained and tanned super bodies.

There were about 50 people there and most of them I recognized. Some I had not seen since the late 1970s. There was absolutely no reason to feel out of place, if not for the fact that there were about 15 photographers around.
Real professionals, oh yeah… They all carried cameras with lenses that seemed to be designed to photograph some far away galaxy. I stood there between them and felt miserable. The only thing I could think of was that I probably had the shortest dick too.

But you know, I have built up a routine over the decades, so I courageously stood between them to photograph — up to the moment when an achievement award was handed over to a woman. She was a bit shy so she moved to the back of stage. The photographers around me dropped to their knees to continue photographing from the only possible, very low, camera angle.

I was the only one standing. The last time I had shot from an angle that low in a studio; I had toppled over — much to the entertainment of those present. Very carefully I tried to bend my knees a little to lower my body, but my back protested. I cursed, turned around and headed for the bar to hastily down three vodkas, although I had sworn never to drink Vodka again. After an involuntary burp I paid my bill and headed for the Lellebel bar to come home early in the morning, surprised that I had not lost my camera somewhere.

I woke up with the thought that I was getting too old, even for the Grey Pride.

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