Bas (23) has been living with his friend and dog Minte in a corner house on a busy street in Cuijk for a year and a half. But he doesn’t feel safe there. Every day he is confronted with hatred, intimidation and exclusion. “I am scolded on the street. Cancerhomo, canceryfus.” And he is not the only LGBTIQ resident of Cuijk who has recently been intimidated or bullied.
Bas sees himself as a gender fluid. One day he feels more men, the next day more woman. “I sometimes have heels and dresses on or nail polish on, that is seen.” What follows is often verbal violence. But he also feels threatened physically. “Things are sometimes thrown over the hedge. Once the garden was full of eggs. Apparently this is necessary if you are gay and live somewhere.”
Even for doing daily shopping, he feels forced to precautionary measures. “I live on forty or fifty meters from the Albert Heijn, but I always go by car. When I walk, they are threatening me to be tough. In the car I know that I am safe. That’s not good, but I’m used to it. You learn to live with it.”
Declaration
According to Bas, hate behavior often comes from the same group. “Boys on Fatbikes, probably received from their parents. Because they have no money for a car.” He strikes that they are often Islamic or Antillean boys teenagers. “It sounds very racist, but it’s just that way. A lady from Cuijk doesn’t do something like that.”
He tried to report, but without results. Once I reported a report for two intimidations on two days in a row. “But nothing happens. You can’t go out for three hours every week for a declaration with which nothing happens.” In the meantime he no longer makes a declaration. “It makes me tired.” He does, however, record incidents at Vizier Oost, which keeps track of discrimination for statistics. And he is going to hang cameras.
Dog poo
But fundamentally, that does not change how he feels. “I can be beaten up, but I’m not going to move.” Should it ever come to that, he is considering the municipality or is sued. “Because the municipality or the state must ensure that I can be safe.” According to Bas, the social trend is clear: it is getting more unsafe. “Ten years ago we were still 2 as the homo -friendly country. Now we are not even in the top 30 anymore. I just notice that it is strange again.”
His story does not stand on its own. At another address in Cuijk, the front door of a lesbian couple was daubed with dog poop. “It often starts and brews in young people,” says a spokesperson for the Regenboograad. For that reason, the rainbow wire is launching a new information brochure on Sunday, specifically aimed at students in secondary education. The brochure contains personal stories, practical tips, help lines and support points for young people who are LGBTIQ+ or want to support someone.
Wider campaign
The first copy was festively handed over to alderman Willy Hendriks-van Haren. “This brochure is for everyone who struggles with questions about themselves, or simply wants to know where you can go for a listening ear,” she says. “It shows: you are not alone.”
The brochure is part of a broader campaign for more visibility and acceptance of LGBTIQ+youngsters in the Land van Cuijk, which profiles itself as a rainbow municipality.