Marc-Marie Huijbregts is extremely disappointed in Khalid & Sophie, because Denk leader Stephan van Baarle got away with his reprehensible anti-queer poster quite easily. “Very sorry.”
Khalid Kasem and Sophie Hilbrand had Stephan van Baarle, the leader of Denk, on their show this week and they also highlighted a bizarre election poster that looks quite anti-queer. All kinds of companies and organizations are depicted with a rainbow flag with the text: ‘Shall we go back to normal?’
Cupboard closed
Marc-Marie Huijbregts is disappointed that the Think leader was hardly given a response. “I saw Khalid & Sophie this week and there was Stephan van Baarle from Denk. They were talking about that poster there, like: ‘Shall we go back to business as usual?’ Everything with a rainbow must be crossed out. ‘Now is the time’ too…”
He continues: “What I don’t like about it is that it actually says: gosh, we will open the cupboards, if you all go back in there, you can close the cupboard. ‘Shall we just go back to business as usual?’ I think so too. Actually, with every minority you would use for this, the Netherlands would be too small, but with gays they think: fine.”
Three times nowhere
Stephan came on the air with a stupid response to that anti-gay poster, says Marc-Marie. “Three times, this makes no sense at all. It really is like: ‘We are for equality for everyone, except…’”
It’s a shame that Khalid and Sophie don’t intervene, he thinks. “Sometimes I think it’s a shame, because then you want such a presenter to ask further questions or at least point out the difficult finger, like: ‘Yes, but of course you use that ‘normal’ for a specific reason. ‘ But then they pass by. I think it’s stupid.”
‘It’s shocking’
Beau van Erven Dorens would have intervened, he says. “It’s shocking. Shocking. I think I remember that Farid Azarkan was actually much more progressive.”
Marc-Marie: “We have often spoken to them here.”
Political chief Elodie Verweij: “You can really see that Stephan van Baarle has taken a much more conservative course, also when it comes to transgender people. He really wants to grab that niche.”