Gay marriage gets a Dutch boost
28 06 09 From the New York TimesOf all things, historical and cultural, that link Amsterdam to New York, there is a particular bond that strikes a personal chord with Carolien Gehrels. Mrs. Gehrels, the deputy mayor of Amsterdam, will be among a delegation of officials from the Netherlands who are flying to New York this weekend to attend gay pride celebrations and to embrace efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in New York State. “We talk about the shared DNA of the two cities, the legacy of tolerance, the openness and the international orientation,” Mrs. Gehrels said in an interview, “and that’s exactly what we celebrate this year.” Mrs. Gehrels brings a personal perspective to the issue: she is married to a woman. She said that while the approval of gay marriage in the Netherlands that took effect in 2001 was “a milestone in equal rights,” even eight years later “equality and freedom are never self-evident.” Same-sex partnerships were legalized in 1998.
She said the legislation pending in Albany deserved a full debate. “This is exactly what happened in the Netherlands before the legalization of same-sex marriage,” she said. “The debate as well as the legal recognition meant an enormous step forward in the acceptance of homosexuality in Dutch society.” On Friday, she is expected to join advocates for gays and lesbians at New York University to mark the Stonewall uprising, which helped inspire the gay rights movement, and to endorse equality for gays and lesbians, including the same-sex marriage legislation.
Her visit this weekend reflects a broader collaboration between the two cities as they celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival in New York in September 1609 of Henry Hudson, an English explorer commissioned by the Dutch East India Company. “Amsterdam, like New York, is more progressive than the rest of the country,” Mrs. Gehrels said, “and Amsterdam, like New York, is a gay capital. It’s a key part of the policy of the city, though not every citizen likes it. There’s always a struggle when you are a minority, but Amsterdam has a history as a city of minorities and in Amsterdam almost everyone is a minority.”
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