A Drenthe parliamentarian will speak at the Human Rights Conference during the Baltic Pride in Vilnius, Lithuania next week. GroenLinks Member of Parliament Henk Nijmeijer from Assen is allowed to tell his story because of his role as champion of the rainbow province. “It’s a huge honor to be invited.”
In 2016, Nijmeijer was one of the initiators to ensure that Drenthe became a rainbow province. All municipalities in Drenthe are now a rainbow municipality and the other provinces have also joined. That is why he was asked to speak at the conference. “It is a huge honor to be invited for that. It is very special that apparently the effect of the rainbow province is now also having an international effect. A great honor that you can speak and be invited with other politicians.”
In the Radio Drenthe program Cassata, Nijmeijer tells about the Baltic Pride, which will be held from 1 June to 5 June. It is an important event for the LGBTI community in the Baltic States, especially in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “It has not gotten any better. It is still under considerable pressure,” he says about gay acceptance in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The Netherlands is in thirteenth place in the ranking of gay acceptance, Lithuania is number 36. “When I was allowed to be there at the Pride three years ago, it was a big party. People from all three Baltic States come to walk the Pride Walk. Then you have a conversation with many people. For four days people have been able to walk freely on the street, after that almost everything is locked again. Walking open on the street is not so easy there.” Men are not allowed to marry, live together or adopt children. Nijmeijer: “The situation there is very bad, especially with regard to the whole family affair, in which we are quite a bit further along.”