Acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands

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Acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands

According to international comparative opinion research, the Netherlands is among the countries where homosexuality is the most widely accepted. Moreover, in recent decades the Dutch government has led the way in according equal rights to homosexual citizens. Any number of famous Dutch figures openly profess their homosexuality; gays and lesbians figure on television programmes and in commercials; negative statements about homosexuals elicit indignant reactions from opinion leaders.

In recent years, however, a number of developments have taken place which rather contradict this image of complete acceptance. Hostility towards homosexuality is common in schools, making life more difficult for homosexual teachers and pupils than for their heterosexual counterparts. Gays and lesbians are not infrequently insulted in the streets or even physically assaulted; in some neighbourhoods their lives are made a misery, and in orthodox religious circles homosexuality is regarded as a sin.

How can these two images be reconciled? Are contemporary expressions of homophobia merely exceptions, excesses or remnants of the past? Do they perhaps stand out because the Dutch today are more alert to discrimination against homosexuals? Or is homophobia genuinely on the rise, for example as a result of changes in the population profile? At the request of the government the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) carried out a study into the acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands. This study provides answers to the following questions:
1 What is the present attitude of the Dutch population towards homosexuality, homosexual men and lesbian women, and homosexual behaviour?
2 What trends are evident in the acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands?
3 Which population groups in particular have negative attitudes to homosexuality?
4 What are the implications of the study findings for policy on homosexual emancipation, and how can developments in attitudes to homosexuality best be measured in the future?

The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Rutgers Nisso Groep, the Dutch expert centre on sexuality. The study was divided into three projects. The first involved an analysis of the findings of large-scale opinion research carried out in the Netherlands in recent decades. The second project involved interviewing more than 80 homosexual men and women in the Netherlands; the third project involved an analysis of Internet forums with discussions about homosexuality. The main findings are summarised below.

Acceptance in a general sense

In order to measure the attitudes of the population towards homosexuality, a number of dimensions were distinguished: acceptance in a general sense; attitudes towards equal rights; people's reactions to homosexuality 'at close quarters', and reactions to homosexuality in public. The first dimension is concerned with the more general aspects, for example people's reaction when asked whether they believe that homosexuals should be free to live in a way that they choose and whether respondents disapprove of homosexuality. Questions such as whether homosexuals today find it easy to make their sexual preferences known and to what extent they have negative experiences relating to their homosexuality, for example at work, also provide an impression of the level of acceptance in general terms.

Opinion research suggests that the population does accept homosexuality in general terms. For example, only 5% of respondents disagree with the statement that homosexual men and lesbian women should be free to live their lives as they wish. A bigger proportion of the population (13-14%) have difficulty with the idea of sex between two males or two females. Research among young people, however, reveals that they much more often have a negative attitude towards homosexuality. And although a majority of members of ethnic minorities also accept homosexuality in general terms, roughly half the Turkish and Moroccan population in the Netherlands have difficulties with homosexuality.

The homosexual men and women interviewed for the study confirmed the impression that homosexuality is fairly widely accepted. But this is subject to requirements and constraints. At present one 'requirement' is that homosexuals must openly state their sexual preferences. Homosexuals who do this often command respect, especially if the rest of their behaviour is 'normal', which means heterosexual. The sexual identity of gays and lesbians thus becomes a public issue, not just within the circle of family, friends and acquaintances, but also at work. At the same time, the majority of gays and lesbians have encountered negative experiences, on the streets or in nightlife centres, but also from family members, at work and in sport. These experiences relate to denigrating comments about homosexuality or homosexuals, malicious gossip or bullying, and verbal or sometimes even physical violence. 'Faggot' is a widely used insult at work and in sport. The homosexual respondents are often not overly concerned about this and see it as a non-specific swearword or expletive. This language use is no less striking for that, however: although a large majority of the Dutch population say that they have nothing against homosexuality, very many of them evidently see it as a negative characteristic.

In Internet chatrooms, too, it is apparent that not everyone regards homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle: some people refer to it in extremely negative terms. Offensive statements about homosexuality can be found on web forums with a Turkish, Moroccan or Islamic character, but also on right-wing nationalist and conservative (orthodox) Protestant/Christian forums. On the latter forums the moral condemnation of the 'sin' (often justified by reference to the Bible) is generally accompanied by calls for a respectful or even a loving approach to the 'sinner'. On right-wing nationalist sites, contributors agitate particularly against the 'unmanly' behaviour of gays, their 'unnatural' sexual practices and the 'exaggerated' attention they allegedly receive from today's media. Turkish, Moroccan and Islamic forums are characterised by (sometimes heated) debates on what is or is not permitted for Muslims, but also on the question of what homosexuality really is: a disease, a congenital or learned deviation, a trial imposed by God or a human idiosyncrasy.
One thing that is striking is the self-correcting capacity of these forums; extreme negative statements are often quickly countered or qualified by other forum members. Girls and women, in particular, appear to play an important role in this.

Equal rights

Homosexuals in the Netherlands today have the same rights as heterosexuals. Since 1 April 2001 couples of the same sex have been allowed to enter into civil marriage. Although a majority of the population believe this is a good thing, in 2006 22% are still against it. Today, roughly 2% of all marriages in the Netherlands are between partners of the same sex.

The possibility for homosexual couples to adopt children was also established in Dutch law in 2001. The most recent survey of public opinion on this took place in 2002; at that time one in three Dutch respondents felt that homosexual couples should not have the same rights to adopt children as heterosexual couples.

Reactions to homosexuality 'at close quarters'

How do people react when they are 'confronted' with homosexuality in their local setting? This subject has received virtually no attention in population surveys. In 2000 respondents were asked what they would think if their 'imaginary' son or daughter were to live together with a partner of the same sex. 12% of respondents said they would find this unacceptable. In another, international comparative study, respondents were asked who they would not like to have as neighbours; only 6% of the Dutch population reported that they would object to having homosexual neighbours - considerably fewer than in the neighbouring countries of Germany (14%) and Belgium (18%).

The study shows that people initially often react in a fairly negative way on discovering that a family member or colleague is homosexual. This is particularly true in the more orthodox religious circles. This initially negative reaction does later generally change into an accepting and sometimes openly supportive attitude.

Discussions on web forums, as well as dealing with homosexuality in an abstract sense, also talk about gays and lesbians of flesh and blood, with whom the forum members have or could come into contact. These experiences are generally posted in defence of gays and lesbians: they are not the worst people on earth. But Turkish and Moroccan forums sometimes contain strong statements, in which the posters say that they would not shy away from using violence if a brother or sister should turn out to be homosexual. Words are of course not the same as deeds, but statements such as this are at the least a cause for concern.

Reactions to homosexuality in public

The fourth and last dimension of attitudes to homosexuality in this study concerns the reaction to the visible presence and expression of homosexuality in the public domain. This dimension rarely receives attention in population surveys; only one survey, held in 2000, asked about one aspect of this: kissing in public. If two men do this, 42% of the Dutch population find this repugnant; if it is two women who are kissing, this raises objections among 31% of respondents. Is there perhaps some confusion here with a general objection to public displays of affection? This explanation does not hold water, because only 8% of the Dutch respondents surveyed reporting having a problem with men and women kissing in public.

Homosexual couples are therefore expected to show much more restraint than heterosexual couples. This dual morality is also clearly reflected on the Internet. Not only flamboyant, demonstrative expressions of homosexuality, but virtually every form of homosexual expression in public is roundly condemned. In fact many gays and lesbians agree with this: those interviewed often distanced themselves from other gays and lesbians who explicitly reveal their sexual preferences in public. This is an important result of this study. In the past, homosexuality was not talked about and was kept out of sight; today, gays and lesbians have to 'come out' but homosexual behaviour may still not be (too) clearly visible. Many gay men seem to fear being labelled a 'sissy' and make the sexual and gender norms of the heterosexual majority their second nature, and expect the same from other homosexuals. Both homosexuals and heterosexuals see homosexuality as primarily a private matter, and thus uphold heterosexuality as the public norm.

Particularly striking are the differences in the way homosexual men and lesbian women feel they are treated in public. Homosexual men in particular often have negative experiences here. Whether this is because they are more easily 'recognised' as homosexuals than lesbian women, because they have a greater presence on the streets or because male homosexuality is more of a problem for certain groups of young men, cannot be determined on the basis of our research material.

Trends over time

Opinion studies show that public attitudes have become much less negative over the course of several decades, with a strong decline in negative attitudes to homosexuality since 1970. For most Dutch citizens (at least judging from their responses to these surveys), homosexuality has moved from being a sin, crime or illness to an acceptable way of life. The proportion of Dutch citizens who disapprove of homosexuality in a general sense has reduced, and the same applies for the proportion of Dutch citizens who disagree with equal rights for homosexuals. Questions about reactions to homosexuality in people's more intimate circles and in public have only been included in population research once , and it is therefore impossible to say whether any changes have taken place here.

The lower limit of the acceptance does appear to have been reached: there is still a small percentage of Dutch citizens who persistently regard homosexuality as unacceptable. It is unlikely that this group will change their opinions in the future, because they appear to go hand in hand with strong identity-determining variables such as ethnicity and religion.

If the share of ethnic minorities in the population increases, as is predicted, and this population group participates more actively in opinion research then it has to date, it is even possible that a trend of negativity towards homosexuals could set in in a few years' time. It is not however certain in advance that an increase in the number of (non-Western) ethnic minorities will automatically lead to a reduction in the acceptance of homosexuality.

Many gays and lesbians perceive an increase in hostility to homosexuals. They base this impression on incidents in nightlife areas, in certain neighbourhoods and schools, which they have sometimes experienced themselves. Other recent studies (Van San et al. 2006) also suggest that gays and lesbians feel less safe today.

Differences between population groups

Negative attitudes to homosexuality are found more than average among young people, older people, men, the less well educated, religious people and Dutch citizens of ethnic origin. Among the indigenous population, religiousness is the main determinant of a negative attitude; of the indigenous Dutch population who say they consider religion to be 'very important', almost 80% have a negative attitude to homosexuality. Education and age also play a role, but mainly among those who are not or hardly religious: here, older persons and those with a low education level are more often negative in their attitudes to homosexuality. Among ethnic minorities, Turks and Moroccans in particular have negative attitudes on average to homosexuality. This is particularly the case among the members of the first generation (those who were not born in the Netherlands).

Homosexual emancipation policy

This study shows that there are still grounds for specific policy on homosexuality. Although serious abuses are uncommon, the acceptance of homosexuality, homosexual men and women and homosexual behaviour is by no means universal. There is not only a role here for central government, but also for other stakeholders such as education establishments, labour organisations and local authorities.

Acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands

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