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Loading ...American-Dutch gay couples wed in Amsterdam
08.03.2009 4:00pm EDT
(Amsterdam) The mayor of Amsterdam presided over the weddings of five American-Dutch gay, lesbian and transgender couples on a boat during the city’s Gay Pride festival Saturday, challenging the United States to legalize gay marriage, as well.
Mayor Job Cohen also performed the first weddings in the Netherlands after the country began allowing same-sex marriages in 2001.“We’ve come really far, farther than we ever thought was possible in just a few years,” Cohen said in an interview between ceremonies. “There’s still a lot to do, that’s the message.”
Each marriage Saturday included on partner from New York and one from the Netherlands
The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of gay rights supporters, who dance on packed streets in the city center and watch colorful boat-floats parade down the city’s ancient canals.
The marriages were also part of celebrations of the 400th anniversary of New York-Netherlands ties.
Deputy Mayor Carolien Gehrels said New York and Amsterdam are a natural fit, given their “shared values of tolerance, creativity and a spirit of commerce.”
Gehrels, who is married to another Dutch woman, said gay marriage is “a human right.”
Saturday’s marriages may be valid in New York – though they could not have legally been performed there.
Governor David Paterson has ordered that gay marriages approved in other jurisdictions be recognized by the state. U.S. Federal law defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.
Ira Siff, a New Yorker who married his Dutch partner Hans Pieter Herman on Saturday, said he believed it was a matter of time before people New York will able to marry whomever they want.
“We’re the most liberal, advanced state in the United States; it should be happening there now,” he said.
“I imagine it will take a while because there are always factions in the states who confuse religion and government. That’s weird because of course the U.S. was formed to separate those two things.”
A solid majority of the Dutch population now supports gay marriage, polls show, and the topic is considered unremarkable.
But a University of Amsterdam study last year found that attitudes against homosexuality are still strong in the Netherlands and anti-gay violence usually goes unreported.
The study, titled “As Long As They Keep Away From Me,” concluded that the tolerance professed by many Dutch is only a veneer: gay men especially are accepted only as long as they don’t display stereotypically gay behavior.
Police say about 70 gay-bashing attacks a year are reported in Amsterdam, a city of 750,000.
Friday night, vandals painted the words “Homos Go To Hell” in large letters across a bridge where the boat parade was to pass.
Frank van Dalen, the head of the organization that organizes the festival, removed the grafitti and shrugged off the incident. He estimated more than half a million people turned out to watch the parade, a record.
“Today we’re having a party and we are proud,” he said via Twitter.
This is amazing … they’ve had marriage equality in the Netherlands for almost 9 years now,and the sky didn’t fall, there were no Pat Robertson tornados, the levees didn’t all collapse; but here in the “land of the free” … it is still a struggle, and mostly denied, thanks to the flagrant stupidity of the religious fanatics who mask their bigotry and hate behind “scripture”.
They should go back to stoning people to death for eating shellfish and leave Gays alone.
Ira Siff is delusional if he thinks New York is the most liberal, advanced state in America. What about Massachusetts, the first to approve marriage quality, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and hopefully Maine? They don’t count? I’m sick and tired of New Yorkers’ claims to be number one in everything. They’re not. In marriage equality, definitely the trailer not a trend setter. Get over it New York.
RobertoCucina, you beat me to it. New York the “most liberal advanced state”???? Is he kidding?
I grew up in CT and NYC was our playground….the big 80’s nightclub scene (sadly no longer) was one of the things that made me realize New York really feels like the center of the world. Also being brought their by our parents for family dinners and theater cemented NYC’s position at the top of all things urban and cultural.
Now as an adult and antiquarian, I just can’t disagree with my younger attraction to the city. It is an amazing place, mainly due to its history and population density. However, the state in which it is located (barely, it more likely could be part of CT or NJ!) is most definitely NOT advanced.
I have lived in Upstate NY and the rest of my life along the border of NY in either CT or MA. My neighbors to the West pay ridiculous property taxes..tens of thousands/year while over here we pay a mere few thousand for houses with similar valuations.
What do they get? corruption, wasted money, overbuilt schools, a bloated government that can’t get out of its own way. They also get the most rundown roads in the area (and New England gets major wear with our winters, and our roads are better). NY also has no concept of zoning so trailers pop up on family property as fast as the babies are pumped out, next to very nice neighborhoods.
A lot of the white supremicist activity is in upstate New York. They have the Adirondack Park, supposedly a model of public/private partnership in preserving nature but property owners are hamstrung by overzealous park boards that control your every move. Don’t buy property in the Adirondacks if you value your freedom..you never really own that property.
New York’s other cities?: extremely run down, no range of economic and social status (extremely poor in the core city, wealthy elsewhere otherwise you live in the burbs), very little cultural attractions and many with bombed out downtowns and infrastructure.
i could go on. I don’t care about how liberal NYC is (I’m not liberal)…but I will say anytime someone is deluded about it that New York is very, very far from being the most advanced state, much less an advanced state at all.
Just look at their legislature…the hoodlums running the state are simply an embarrassment to human intellect!
If New York is the most liberal and tolerant state why is it that Massachusetts has had legalized marriage since 2004?