Gay

[Updated] Two men have entered the competition to select the ‘misses’ who will congratulate the winner of the prologue of the Giro d’Italia, but it seems unlikely that they will survive the first selection round next Friday. What is more, even the girl entrants may not be allowed to act as official Giro misses.

Last month, progressive party GroenLinks suggested that instead of a miss, a broad-shouldered man or a drag queen could congratulate the winner of the prologue of the Giro d’Italia in Amsterdam on 8 May. Foreign media reported that indeed a few men have entered the ‘Ciao Bella’ competition organised by local TV stations AT5 and RTV NH to select the Giro misses.

Foreign media offer extensive coverage of the Dutch national political crisis, but they cover a few local issues as well. They are mainly interested in the debate on foreign-language campaign material and the suggestion to have gay men kiss the winner of the prologue of the Giro d’Italia. “The misses will be Italian and will be brought from Italy by us.”

The Netherlands will elect a new Parliament on 9 June, as a result of the fall of the cabinet over Uruzgan. However, there will be local elections first, on next Wednesday.

In the early 1980s, there was a debate in the Osdorp District on whether the Salvation Army should be granted a collection permit, because the organisation would discriminate against homosexual employees. Recently, the district was the first to transfer its archive to the City Archive.

The archive apparently also contains documents on “the development and setting of policies on granting dispensations to organise treasure hunts.”

This afternoon, council member Michiel Mulder (PvdA) will report ‘positivity guru’ Emile Ratelband to the police for discrimination, the council member announced on Twitter. According to the Belgian weekly Dag Allemaal, Ratelband called homosexuality a disease that can be cured with self-discipline, but Ratelband denies having said this.

According to the Gazet van Antwerpen, that makes him the ‘umpteenth in a row’ to accuse the weekly of lying.

The VVD stance against ‘Apartheid subsidies’ has elicited a lively debate on Twitter and in other media: is the party trying to co-opt Wilders supporters? And exactly what gay subsidies would they like to slash? Robert Flos (VVD) responds.

The VVD has announced that it will re-draw the boundary between church and state in its platform for the March 2010 council election, as well as take a stand against ‘Apartheid subsidies’. “Subsidies that only benefit one specific group such as Moroccan men, Ethiopian women, Hindustani Surinamese people or homosexual men will be cancelled.”

Rita Verdonk has announced that her party Proud of the Netherlands will participate in the Amsterdam city council election in 2010. “Yes, we’ll definitely participate in Amsterdam. We’ve just started setting up an organisation here, so I can say, soon Proud of the Netherlands and Proud of Amsterdam”.

Verdonk was interviewed by AT5 while she was delivering a letter to Mayor Job Cohen, calling on him to get tough on people (‘we all know they are Moroccan boys in general’) who beat up gays on Queen’s Day. They should be given a 10,000 euro fine, put in jail and banned from festivities in Amsterdam for five years.

Friday night, Moroccan organisations brought the debate on freedom of speech from the elitist Grachtengordel to disadvantaged neighbourhood Bos en Lommer. Racist remarks must be tolerated, it was argued, but one should also be able to call Geert Wilders’ PVV a racist party.

“Unfortunately, until now, the debate is taking place mainly in columns and in debate centres that are frequented mainly by the indigenous elite”, organisers Aknarij and KMAA said. “And you might call this strange, for more often than not the debate on freedom of speech erupts during discussions on the integration of ethnic minorities in Dutch society”.