Clash of civilizations update. “It may be Europe’s most liberal city – but if you are gay, you had best beware,” from the TimesOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in:
WHEN the editor of one of America’s leading gay magazines
visited the world’s gay capital a fortnight ago, he assumed that he would be safe.But as Chris Crain, editor of the Washington Blade, was walking hand in hand with his boyfriend near one of the gay districts in Amsterdam, two men standing on a street corner spat at his face. He stopped to ask why, was called a “fag” and suddenly the two youths turned into seven.
Surrounded, Mr Crain was kicked to the ground by the gang and ended up in hospital with a broken nose and badly bruised face.
His attackers were Moroccan youths, blamed by Dutch gay rights groups for a disturbing rise of gay-bashing, as conservative Islamic culture clashes with Dutch liberalism….
COC Nederland, the Dutch gay rights organisation, which led the struggle for acceptance, said that the tolerant climate was “slipping away like sand through the fingers”…