Amsterdam Gay Pride 2013 boat no37 Hot Spot Cafe pic7

Amsterdam Pride, Amsterdam Gay Pride or Pride Amsterdam is a citywide queer-

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

held annually at the center of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

during the first weekend of August. The festival attracts several hundred-thousand visitors each year and is one of the largest publicly held annual events in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Amsterdam Pride was first organized in 1996, meant as a festival to celebrate freedom and diversity. It was therefore not like many other

Gay Pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...

s, which began as demonstrations for equal rights. The latter purpose served another event, which is called Pink Saturday (Dutch: ''Roze Zaterdag'') since 1979 and is held in a different city each year since 1981. The peak of the festival is during the Canal Parade, a parade of boats of large variety on the first Saturday of August, which usually goes from Westerdok over the Prinsengracht, the

Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the r ...

river, the Zwanenburgwal and the Oudeschans to Oosterdok. In 2014, the first Jewish boat and the first Moroccan boat participated in the Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade.

Dana International Sharon Cohen ( he, שרון כהן; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International ( he, דנה אינטרנשיונל), is an Israeli pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She wa ...

was on the Jewish boat, as well as the Fokkens twins (Louise Fokkens and Martine Fokkens), who are famous in the Netherlands for having worked 50 years as sex workers in Amsterdam's Red Light District before their retirement earlier in 2014. Marianne van Praag, a Reform rabbi from The Hague, was the only rabbi aboard the Jewish boat. The Amsterdam Gay Pride usually spans a week of various activities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, including exhibitions, cultural and sport events. There are also street parties in the streets where there's a concentration of

gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term '' gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once serv ...

s, like Reguliersdwarsstraat,

Zeedijk Zeedijk (''English'': "Sea dike") is a street in the old centre of Amsterdam. The street is the northern and eastern boundary of De Wallen red-light district and runs between Prins Hendrikkade and Nieuwmarkt. Historically an area riddled with ...

Warmoesstraat Warmoesstraat ('Chard Street') is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, running parallel to Damrak from Nieuwebrugsteeg to Dam Square. Its origins are in the 13th century. In the 16th and 17th century it was the shopping street. During the Dut ...

and alongside Amstel. On Rembrandtplein there's a closing party on the Sunday after the Canal Parade.

Name change to Amsterdam Pride

In 2015, the board of the Amsterdam Gay Pride took a different approach towards the name of the festival. The ProGay foundation, which founded the festival, argued that the term 'Gay' did not sufficiently express the diversity amongst the participants of the Pride. The president of the board, Irene Hemelaar, confirmed that the change would be happening, but the name change only came through in 2017. By changing the name of the festival they hoped to encourage other prides to become more inclusive in their annual events. The Netherland Police Units participate in a yearly event that illustrate the inclusion of the Netherlands. The Netherlands' Police Department wear pink uniforms during the festival to emphasise the department's support in the LGBT community. In 2016, the EuroPride changed its community name to LGBTI, I for

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bin ...

ual, since it was the first year in which there was an appearance of an intersexual community in the festival's program. Since the Netherlands have learned about the intersexual community, digesting and learning their culture has been their top priority. The name change and the appearance of the 'I' in LGBTI worked to form a more inclusive environment for all people to celebrate their gender and sexuality.

LGBT in Netherlands

The Netherlands shows a very high level of social acceptance to the LGBT community. Through the years, social acceptance towards LGBT groups has been increasing and the Netherlands received top rankings in several surveys into the attitude towards LGBT groups, relative to a number of other European countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, etc. The tolerant attitude of different groups of Dutch people can be seen in some aspects of how the public view LGBT people, acceptance of equal rights for LGBT people, the visibility of the LGBT community and construction of networks of LGBT groups. For example, the Netherlands has the highest ranking in support for LGBT groups having the freedom to pursue their desired lifestyles, and feel most comfortable with LGBT political leaders. The attitude of the Dutch towards lesbians, gays and bisexuals is more open than that towards transgender people. This is also common in other European societies, which is caused by transgender people being less common than the LGB people, and therefore people being more likely to have more LGB friends or acquaintances than transgender friends or acquaintances. In the Netherlands, more than 75% of the interviewees revealed that they had LGB friends and hold a positive stance towards homosexuality while less than 10% of the interviewees revealed that they had transgender friends or acquaintances. The general view of the Dutch Society towards LGBT is positive and people support and are open to promoting the equalities and freedom of LGBT community.

References

External links

Amsterdam Gay Pride
(official website)

(Video)
History of Amsterdam Gay Pride
{{Pride parades Culture in Amsterdam Pride parades in Europe LGBT culture in the Netherlands Recurring events established in 1996 1996 establishments in the Netherlands Parades in the Netherlands Summer events in the Netherlands