Ten years ago, Gay Pride was a homosexual carnival with lots of naked men and the Canal Parade as its highlight.
This year, the Christian Democrat party is taking part in the Canal Parade, and so is ING. Top athletes will have their own boat, and the defence ministry has allowed soldiers to take part in uniform (as long as they wear it correctly). Even heterosexuals will have their own boat on Saturday- out of solidarity.
'Heavy message'
"It's still a party. But partying and fighting for what you believe in are not mutually exclusive," says Frank van Dalen, director of Pro Gay, the company behind the Gay Pride celebrations in Amsterdam.The 14th edition of Gay Pride will see eighty boats converge on Amsterdam's canals. Thirty of them have a "heavy message", says Van Dalen, with themes like violence against homosexuals or the emancipation of Christian homosexuals. There are also "political" boats like that of Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen or Labour minister Ronald Plasterk, whose portfolio includes homosexual emancipation.
"Gay Pride has widened and deepened," says Van Dalen.
In 2009, Gay Pride is looking more socially responsible than ever before. That shows not just in the number and type of boats in the Canal Parade, but also in the surrounding activities during the week. The university of Amsterdam is showing a collection of rare homosexual books, for instance, and the Hermitage museum laid on on a special gay day.
It is a far throw from 2003, when the previous Gay Pride organiser, Siep de Haan, openly worried about too little nakedness. "People wore far too many clothes," he told Trouw newspaper afterwards. De Haan promised to fight off attempts by the city and the tourist office to incorporate Gay Pride into the promotion of Amsterdam as a cultural destination. The current organisers have no such qualms.
Glitter is out
The change came about in 2005. Van Dalen: "The Zeitgeist changed. At the end of the nineties we thought homosexual emancipation was a done deal. Around 2005 we came to the realisation that in fact we still had a long way to go."
The rising violence against homosexuals played a role, says Van Dalen, as did to a lesser extent the "islamisation of society".
Glitter and naked torsos were not beneficial to the emancipation of homosexuals, it appeared. Gay Pride's new message was that not all homosexuals have the bodies of athletes or act like women. Multinationals joined the Canal Parade with the slogan: "Company pride is personal pride", and political and other organisations soon followed.
The era of naked men has passed, agrees Wilco Mulder who coordinates the military participation for the defence ministry.
"The Pride has a much more official tone to it now," he says. "I encourage that because it allows [gay soldiers] to take part in the Canal Parade in all decency. It's no longer about provocation, but about the visibility of homosexuals, first in the corporate world and now in the military as well."
But hasn't the Canal Parade become a floating commercial, a platform for politicians and companies to advertise their goodwill towards homosexuals?
Van Dalen: "If a municipality wants to take part in the Canal Parade we always ask: So what have you done for the emancipation of homosexuals this year? If the answer is not satisfactory, they're not coming into the parade."
