| Thanks a bunch, Mr Mayor: and now gay rights for allPRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press contact for Love Exiles: Thanks a bunch, Mr Mayor: and now gay rights for all Amsterdam 1 April 2006: Exactly five years after Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen officiated at the first weddings in the world between two men and between two women, he once again opened City Hall to jubilant gays and lesbians. And although “love was in the air”, the lack of complete rights for all gays and lesbians in the Netherlands overshadowed the festivities. Opening the celebration, the Mayor – whose final action in his previous position as Secretary of State for Justice was to push through the law allowing gays and lesbians to marry – congratulated the couples now celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. But he also noted that the acceptance that he had expected to come from removing discrimination in marriage law was far from complete. “I know gay men and lesbians are feeling less safe on the streets of Amsterdam these days,” he said. “We are doing everything in our power to change this.” “The Netherlands has taken the lead on this issue and it has given us international visibility. It became one of the most important issues in President Bush’s election campaign. It’s giving the people at the Vatican sleepless nights. In the whole civilised western, world people look in awe at what we have achieved here in the Netherlands,” said Henk Krol, the editor in chief of the national Gay Krant and the person most responsible for the inclusion of gays and lesbians in Dutch marriage law. “But now Europe has to start working for us. Once we leave the country, our marriages aren’t recognized. This isn’t good enough. It is one law, one marriage. There is no such thing as gay marriage. For example, for tax purposes, if we want to retire to France we would have to get divorced and then sign a French PACS agreement, because France doesn’t recognize Dutch marriages between two men, or between two women.” Martha McDevitt-Pugh and Robert Bragar, speaking on behalf of the Love Exiles Foundation, brought the bitter facts of this lack of recognition to the crowd. Robert Bragar was an immigration lawyer from New York when love struck in the form of Dutchman Rik Kruisdijk. Though he came to Holland for love, Bragar got much more – the self-respect that comes from legal recognition of his life relationship. “In America, I lacked rights I didn’t even realize I missed. Now that I have them, I’d never give them up.” Bragar noted that we have come a long way in the last 20 years, both in the US and in the Netherlands. “But we are not there yet. Not until same sex couples in every country have the same rights as straight couples.” “When I came to the Netherlands six years ago to be with my beloved Lin, I could not even contemplate that I would be standing here today, celebrating 5 years of marriage for gays and lesbians,” said Martha McDevitt-Pugh, founder of the Love Exiles Foundation. “For one, I thought I’d be back in the US by now, with Lin and perhaps even my stepson. It didn’t take long to discover that the US prefers to let me and thousands like me leave the country, rather than give our foreign partners immigration rights. I was forced to leave; that is why I call myself a love exile. I am angry that the US is willing to forfeit the tremendous care, knowledge and skills capital that the thousands of love exiles represent, rather than accept our partners onto its shores.” McDevitt-Pugh was born and raised in the Bay Area, California. The Dutch government’s empathy for gay rights is at an all time low, McDevitt-Pugh observed. The recent Dutch refusal to give gay Iranian refugees political asylum testifies to this. “What a bitter taste this celebration has: the Netherlands is not willing to accept gay Iranian refugees and worse, sends them home. Even the US – and I know you may find it difficult to accept that the US does some things well – gives political asylum to gays and lesbians fleeing danger.” But perhaps the words of McDevitt-Pugh’s 12 year old niece caught the issue most succinctly.
Bragar and McDevitt-Pugh thanked the mayor personally for supporting their rights. He said he would continue to do so. "But I hope you will stay here", he added. He may want to run that past Lisa Weishaar first. © 2006 Stichting Love Exiles. All rights reserved. |