BnnVara face Jurre Geluk has never held his friend Dirk’s hand in public since he fell victim to street terror in Amsterdam. “Fuck gays!”
Jurre Geluk explains in an interview with the Weekend that he finds it very difficult to be completely himself in the Netherlands. He is now at about 40 percent, he says. What will it take to increase that percentage? “What I need for it: no articles in the newspaper or online about queer people getting beaten up.”
Hand in hand
Jurre himself is also very afraid of that. “A while ago I was walking hand in hand with my boyfriend on the street, in my own street, and someone passed by on a scooter and shouted: ‘Cancer gays!’ And I immediately let go of my friend’s hand. I never hold his hand and I did it once… That means I don’t dare to be myself in that.”
He continues: “But fortunately there are also many places where it is possible, such as at this premiere and in the media. There it is really celebrated and that is very nice. Only on the street it is very bad. Very different.”
Never myself
Jurre has never felt completely free. “Funnily enough, I was playing this game with a friend the other day: ‘What percentage are you yourself now?’ Then I said that I am only 30 percent myself. Due to great insecurity from the past, not daring to be yourself because I am gay, I started with very little percent.”
“I have always been very concerned with what others think of me. That comes from a kind of unsafe feeling. I feel quite sorry for myself that it used to be that way. But I notice that every year I start to pay more and more attention to things, and I start to trust more and more in who I am and that I am fun. So maybe I’m at 40 percent now.”