Pink Monday has been the most visited day at the Tilburg Fair for many years. With many hundreds of thousands of visitors, this is one of the most massive events for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other people from the rainbow community. At the same time, the number of reports of anti-gay violence and discrimination in the Netherlands is increasing again. Reason for Omroep Brabant to spend a week investigating how pink Brabant is doing.
Someone was knocked off his bicycle in Breda because he is gay. Two men walking arm in arm in the same town were yelled at and chased. A visitor to a gay hangout in Reek was robbed. The Rainbow Square in Eindhoven was defaced with the text ‘Fuck gay’. In Helmond, rainbow flags were ripped from houses and destroyed.
Football hooligans pulled the rainbow flag from the COC building in Eindhoven in April and set it on fire. A volunteer who said something about this was punched in the face. Benjamin Ector is chairman of interest group COC Eindhoven. “I often hear stories about bad experiences. You notice that society has hardened. It is not so much that the group of opponents is getting bigger, but that it is becoming easier from words of hatred to action. That is a trend that is very scary for our community.”
Pink Monday is traditionally held during the Tilburg Fair. A day that, according to Ector, is also all about celebrating. “We must never forget that many generations have gone before us who have had a much harder time and have had to fight harder for their rights. So we can also celebrate what we have achieved.”
Throughout the week you can read stories at Omroep Brabant about, among other things, pink football supporters and asylum seekers, gay meeting places, transition leave and rainbow municipalities.