John Blankenstein (12 February 1949 in

De Bilt De Bilt () is a municipality and town in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. It had a population of in . De Bilt houses the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). It is the ancestral home and namesake for the pro ...

– 25 August 2006 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

) was a Dutch football referee and

gay rights activist A list of notable LGBT rights activists who have worked to advance LGBT rights by political change, legal action or publication. Ordered by country, alphabetically. Argentina * Claudia Castrosín Verdú, she and her partner were the first les ...

. He was notable for being one of the first

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

athletes to

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

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 ...

Professional career

As a

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

, Blankenstein moved with his family to the city of The Hague, where he later played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

at local club VCS. At age 22, when he failed at developing a successful career as a professional football player, he started a career as a referee working for the

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and women ...

. From 1980 until the end of his career, he refereed 502

professional football In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

matches. From 1985 until 1995, Blankenstein worked as a referee in 88 international matches and was on the list of referees of the International Federation of Association Football (

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

). Highlights of his career were the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

final in 1993 and being chosen to referee in the 1992 European Championship. In 1994, Blankenstein was selected to referee the 1994 UEFA Champions League Final between

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

and

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

, only to be replaced by Englishman

Philip Don Philip Don (born 10 March 1952) is a former football referee and school headteacher from England. Don was originally from Sheffield but his teaching career took him south to Middlesex. He is counted amongst the top 100 referees of all time in ...

a few days before the match. The contents of the official decision were never made public, but it was said that it was because

Johan Cruijff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a pr ...

and

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is the younger brother of his former international teammate Erwin Koeman and the son of former Dutch international Martin Koeman. Koeman was cap ...

, both FC Barcelona players, were from the Netherlands. Blankenstein himself later stated it had been because of him being openly homosexual. After his career as a referee, Blankenstein became head of 'Referee-Affairs Professional Football' for the Royal Dutch Football Association in the city of

Zeist Zeist () is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 83 ...

Homosexuality

During the 1980s and 1990s, Blankenstein became well known internationally for being one of the first openly homosexual football referees. Blankenstein was active in various anti-discrimination charities and was a celebrity in the Netherlands. For breaking with the

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

on the subject of homosexuality in football, the Dutch

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

organization

COC Nederland COC Nederland, also known as COC Netherlands, is a Dutch LGBTQ+ rights group founded in 1946. COC originally stood for ''Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum'' (Center for Culture and Leisure), which was intended as a "cover" name for its real purpose ...

awarded him the Bob Angelo medal in 2003. Until June 2004, Blankenstein was chairman of COC Haaglanden, the branch of COC Nederland in the city of

. During the summer of 2004, he became one of the founders of

Homo LesBische Federatie Nederland Homo LesBische Federatie Nederland (HLBF.nl) is an organization for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. The organization was founded June 14, 2004 in Breda. See also *LGBT rights in the Netherlan ...

. In 2005, he was awarded the Harry Stapels Award by the sports organization, NCS, for ten years of supporting the

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchis ...

of homosexual sportsmen and -women. On Friday, 25 August 2006, Blankenstein died in the Leyenburg Hospital in The Hague, Netherlands due to a rare

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

-related disease. To continue his work for acceptance of and equal rights for homosexual people in sports, the John Blankenstein Foundation was founded on 18 December 2008. News-article on the founding of the John Blankenstein Foundation on the official website of COC Nederland
/ref> On 13 January 2009, the city of The Hague established an annual award for gay-emancipation and named it the John Blankenstein Award in his honor.

References

Literature

* ''Soccer Vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics'', by Gabriel Kuhn, PM Press 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blankenstein, John 1949 births 2006 deaths Deaths from kidney failure Dutch football referees Gay sportsmen Dutch LGBT sportspeople Dutch LGBT rights activists LGBT history in the Netherlands People from De Bilt UEFA Euro 1992 referees 20th-century LGBT people Sportspeople from Utrecht (province)