How do BBB and NSC view LGBTI themes?

“Will this country follow a conservative course or will we retain the progressive Netherlands?” According to D66 leader Rob Jetten, this will be the “most exciting elections since 2002”. These “are not just about social security, but about the simple question: can we, as an LGBTI community, really exist and be free?” Jetten said last month at the COC Election Debate.

“A chilly wind is blowing towards our community,” says Philip Tijsma, chairman of the politics working group of interest group COC. “You see a stagnation of emancipation.” He points out the most recent LGBT monitor from the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) from 2022. Data research from The Green Amsterdammer showed this year how anti-LGBT sentiment has exploded on social media, especially towards transgender people.

LGBTI people are increasingly seen as part of “an imposed agenda,” he said The green. This includes words such as “gender ideology” and “LGBT lobby”, which far-right and conservative religious groups have been using in recent years. Such as around children’s book author Pim Lammers or sex education in the Week of Spring Fever or drag queens reading aloud.

The frame of the ‘imposed agenda’ can also be read in programs during these elections. FVD, PVV and Denk speak out against LGBTI issues and call them “gender madness” (PVV), “woke propaganda” (FVD) or “rainbow coercion” (Denk).

At the same time, more parties are paying attention to diversity. And this “is broader than just for the l, the h and the b,” says political scientist Anne Louise Schotel, who received her PhD this year on political representation of LGBTI people. “But,” says Schotel, “there is skepticism, especially in the area of ​​gender diversity.”

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‘Women’s locker rooms’

The big question is where newcomers NSC and BBB can be placed. Their programs pay scant attention to the theme. NSC is committed to the “full acceptance of LGBTI people at school, at work and in society”, BBB “stands up for the rainbow community”, in particular by taking tougher action against discrimination. BBB wants to leave medical-ethical issues, among which the party supports transgender care, a free issue: party members can form their own opinion about this.

NSC wants “thorough scientific advice” on gender treatments in young people. The party is against the proposed expansion of the Transgender Act, which means that people no longer have to visit an expert to have their gender registration changed.

Sophie Schers, policy advisor at Transgender Network, thinks it is “a shame that NSC comes to these conclusions without talking to interest representatives. NSC profiles itself as the party that carefully considers laws.” The COC, the Dutch organization for gender diversity NNID, and Meer dan Gewenst, the foundation for pink parenting, have also not spoken to NSC, they say. The reason is a lack of time, says Rosanne Hertzberger, number 17 on the NSC list. The party still plans to talk to interest groups, she says. Hertzberger does call NSC an open-minded party.

Transgender NetworkSophie Schers There is an international movement trying to curtail transgender care worldwide

In an interview with the Dutch Dagblad Pieter Omtzigt said that he is against the expansion of the Transgender Act to protect the transgender community and “women’s sports and women’s changing rooms”. Political scientist Schotel calls this “gut feelings”. “There are no reliable reports in countries with relaxed regulations on gender registration of cisgender women being harassed.” According to Hertzberger, NSC chooses this position on the Transgender Act because gender is not just something individual. “It has social, socio-cultural and legal implications.”

According to Sophie Schers of Transgender Netwerk, BBB and NSC are more conservative than the CDA. “The CDA has supplied LGBTI ministers, had a Minister of Emancipation.” The CDA writes in its election manifesto that it has a “careful” Transgender Act. The party does not call for additional screening of transgender care, like NSC and ChristenUnie.

Schers explains the concerns about gender treatments as “an international movement that seeks to restrict transgender care worldwide.”

‘Spine’

Chairman Remco Yizhak Cooremans of Meer dan Gewenst (for pink parenting) calls BBB and NSC “the uncertain factor”. In the election manifesto, both parties do not mention multi-parenthood (making three or four parents legally possible) or a legal arrangement for surrogacy. NSC is “in principle” against the bill that regulates multi-parenthood, says Hertzberger. She sees “legal and practical” objections.

NSC is in favor of partial authority. Meer dan Gewenst does not think that is a good option, says Cooremans. “The child is still an orphan if the legal parents die while the other parents are still alive.”

With a coalition on the right, emancipation will move from stagnation to regression, Schers thinks. “That would be very worrying; for that you only have to look to the other side of the North Sea. The British Conservatives are radicalizing on LGBTI positions. It may be that NSC has a backbone and will stand for the rights of LGBTI people, but it really has to prove itself.”

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