A group of young people took a rainbow flag from a teenager who was on his way to the Pride Walk Haarlemmermeer in the center of Hoofddorp this afternoon. “They took it away and threw it in the trash,” Yara Postma (14) tells NH. Despite the incident, the group happily marched on this afternoon.
The Haarlem woman tells NH that the incident took place around 4 p.m. Yara has not filed a report or made a report, but some friends, including Ilse Davids (16), confirm her reading to NH.
It is not the first time Yara has faced homophobia. “Sometimes we are called gay, or they say ‘don’t show your mother!'” she says. “But there are also people who do accept it.”
Yara and Ilse were on their way to the Oude Raadhuis in Hoofddorp, the starting point of the second edition of the Pride Walk Haarlemmermeer. It is no coincidence that it is being run today: May 17 is the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia and Intersexphobia.
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Participant Chris from Hoofddorp (16) about the importance of the pride walk – NH News
By five o’clock a large group is standing in front of the Town Hall, where the rainbow flag is flying prominently. The turnout is impressive: about eighty people came to the event, many of whom have painted the rainbow flag on their cheeks.
One of the organizers is Cindy Boter (24). “I always thought: such a Pride Walk is not necessary at all,” she says. “But when I heard the stories of others, I was shocked.”
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Cindy refers to Purple Friday: the day when people show their support for sex, gender and sexual diversity by wearing purple. “Parents have sometimes approached the school board because they did not want purple Friday to be celebrated at their child’s school. The schools listen to it because they do not want any bullshit.”
From the Town Hall, under the musical accompaniment of the brass band, they cross the bridge to the Burgemeester Stampplein, after which they continue their way to the culture building via the Rainbow plane.
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In recent years, the Dutch have not started to think more positively about LGBT people, according to a research of the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP). Since 2017, the number of Dutch people who have a positive attitude towards homosexuality and bisexuality has even decreased from 78 to 76 percent.
Looking at a period of fifteen years, the Dutch have started to think more positively about homosexuality and bisexuality. Compared to the views in other European countries, the Netherlands can even be called progressive: only in Iceland are the inhabitants more positive about homosexuality and bisexuality.