Amsterdam Pride to Have Armed Forces Participants

As America continues with baby steps toward full GLBT equality, nations abroad take leap after leap toward the same goal. This year's Pride celebration in Amsterdam will prove the point anew, as uniformed members of the Dutch military are officially slated for the first time to participate in the event, Advocate.com reported on March 21.

"The parade's organizers and the military gays organization have both welcomed the news," reported Radio Netherlands Worldwide on March 20. "Two years ago, gay soldiers were not allowed to join the event. Last year they were granted permission to do so but only on an individual basis."

Amsterdam's Pride parade takes place in the city's famed canals. The military contingent will have their own boat, reported RNW.

The Netherlands was the first nation to set aside anti-gay prejudice aimed at GLBT patriots, admitting openly gay servicemembers in 1974. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that fully 10% of the country's armed forces are gay.

Even with a head start on other countries in terms of equality in the military, gays were still routinely denied promotions and advancement, the Wikipedia article said.

In America, foes of setting aside the 17year-old ban on openly GLBT servicemembers warn that gays will "erode morale" and have a negative impact on military discipline, and fret that the presence of openly homosexual patriots in the ranks will turn the military into an ongoing orgy.

The United States is the last of its Western allies to set aside such an anti-gay ban on openly gay patriots serving in uniform. Foreign militaries have not experienced problems with discipline, nor have they suffered precipitous drops in enlistment and retention. In the case of GLBT military personnel in The Netherlands, the Wikipedia article noted that "a high level of loyalty characterizes homosexual personnel in the Dutch military. Indeed, research suggests that, given the difficulties they face, 'only the most highly motivated, loyal homosexuals will choose a career in the armed services and persist in it.' "

Many of the laws circumscribing the rights of GLBTs in The Netherlands were also set aside in 1974, but it was not until 1993 that Dutch gays were covered comprehensively under national anti-discrimination laws.

Five years later, in 1998, Dutch gay and lesbian families were accorded legal recognition in the form of domestic partnerships. Three years later, Dutch families achieved full marriage parity when The Netherlands became the first country in the world to grant marriage equality to all of its citizens.

There are still episodes of anti-gay violence, a separate Wikipedia article noted, but they typically are not the work of the Dutch people themselves. Rather, anti-gay violence is usually perpetrated by Moroccan immigrants whose religious traditions enshrine faith-based hatred of homosexuals.

Conservative Christians oppose laws that benefit GLTBs, but do not condone anti-gay violence or discrimination, the article said.

A United States general created a stir last year when he claimed that gays rendered Dutch troops unable to prevent a slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Bosnia, that was perpetrated by Serbs in 1995. Testifying against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," U.S. Gen. John Sheehan suggested that the Dutch military was weakened due to the presence of openly gay servicemembers.

A March 31, 2010,Associated Press story related that Dutch troops from the United Nations were unable to stop the killings because they were "Outnumbered and outgunned by Serb forces."

But Sheehan told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 18, 2010, that a Dutch officer, Gen. Henk van den Breemen, named gay troops as "part of the problem" that allowed the slaughter to take place.

A Dutch group called Pink Army prepared to being suit against Sheehan, but the American officer issued a public apology to Gen. van den Breeman, saying in an email message, ""I am sorry that my recent public recollection of those discussions of 15 years ago inaccurately reflected your thinking on some specific social issues in the military."

Gen. Sheehan acknowledged in the email that the mass murder perpetrated by Serb forces "was in no way the fault of individual soldiers," the AP reported.

Amsterdam's Pride parade will take place on Aug. 6.