Gay bashing in Europe's most liberal city

[Jesus Saves]

WHEN the editor of one of America’s leading gay magazines visited the world’s gay capital a fortnight ago, he assumed that he would be safe. But as Chris Crain, editor of the Washington Blade, was walking hand in hand with his boyfriend near one of the gay districts in Amsterdam, two men standing on a street corner spat at his face. He stopped to ask why, was called a “fag” and suddenly the two youths turned into seven.

Surrounded, Mr Crain was kicked to the ground by the gang and ended up in hospital with a broken nose and badly bruised face.

His attackers were Moroccan youths, blamed by Dutch gay rights groups for a disturbing rise of gay-bashing, as conservative Islamic culture clashes with Dutch liberalism.

For the first time, the Amsterdam Tourist Board has issued a warning to gay visitors to be careful in the city. In the first country to legalise homosexual marriage, gays are increasingly fearful of holding hands in public. Some have been chased out of their houses and middle-class gays are moving to rural areas for safety.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1611374_1,00.html

[teenagebambam]

1. Neat.

Now the two greatest enemies of freedom and liberty, Gays and Brown People, can be pitted against each other while the Repugs complete their global domination.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. What about gay brown people? n/t

[DireStrike]

4. Sounds like a candidate for secretary of state!

They can and will find a gay brown person who hates gay people and brown people. This person will be on TV 25 hours a day.

[gauguin57]

3. Jesus Christ. That is absolutely too scary.

Amsterdam? Jesus.

Well, Theo Van Gogh's death was a big signal that something nasty was in the air over there.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0324660/bio

[kweerwolf]

5. Here's a link to the original article by the bashing victim

This appeared in the May 5 edition of The Washington Blade under the headline "Looking hate in the face:"

IF YOU WOULD have told me when I first came out that at some point in my life I would be beaten up for being gay, I would never have imagined it like this.

As a child of the South, where “fag” and “queer” were everyday insults, I would have expected a fist to the face somewhere back home for sure.

For years now, in big cities and small, I suppose I’ve tempted fate, living my life as I have always seen everyone else live theirs.

If the mood strikes me to hold my boyfriend’s hand, I do it. If a chill in the air makes me want to put my arm around his shoulders, I do that, too. If he says something romantic that deserves a peck on the lips, he can expect that’s coming, too.

As it happens, I tempted fate one too many times in arguably the “gay-friendliest” place on the planet.

http://www.washblade.com/2005/5-6/view/editorial/hate.cfm