At Amsterdam Pride 2015

LIVE VIDEO: Amsterdam Pride

There's also a better non-embeddable video stream with live commentary in Dutch. (Tipped by JMG reader Dieter)

Rugby Calendar Men

Clip recap: "The Lowlanders are a gay rugby club in Amsterdam. This is the promo video for the making of their 2014 calendar, proceeds from the sale of which will finance their trip to Sydney to play in the Bingham Cup 27-31 August 2014." Possibly not work-friendly.

US Consulate In Amsterdam Issues First Visa For Spouse Of Gay American

On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the immediate availability of visas for the spouses for gay Americans. Two days later the first such document was issued in the Netherlands. From the Facebook page of the US Consulate General, Amsterdam:

Mr. Francois Conradie is moving to New York, and visited the U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam for his L2 visa interview on Friday. Today, he was surprised by Consul General Berry, who presented him with the printed visa placed in his passport. This is the first derivative visa we have had the privilege of issuing to the same-sex spouse of a visa applicant in Amsterdam since the U.S. Supreme Court's repeal of DOMA. Have a great trip Mr. Conradie!

Amsterdam Pride Stands Up For Russia

LGBT people in the Netherlands stood up for their brothers and sisters in Russia at his weekend's Amsterdam Pride boat parade, where anti-Putin slogans and displays were in heavy evidence. Members of the local Labour Party wore "Gay Pride For Russia" t-shirts.

On Saturday, more than 500,000 people attended the 2013 Gay Pride Festival in Amsterdam to celebrate homosexual rights. The Amnesty International boat caught the attention of many as it featured a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the recent anti-homosexual propaganda laws in Russia. In July, four Dutch were arrested in Murmansk, Russia for suspicion of gay propaganda. The detained group of Dutch documentarists, lead by Sharelly Emanuelson, were able to return to the Netherlands safely.

Orlando And Amsterdam Eliminated As Potential Hosts For Gay Games 2018

The Federation of Gay Games has eliminated the bids of Orlando and Amsterdam to be the host cities of the Gay Games in 2018.  The cities still in the running are London, Paris, and Limerick, Ireland.  Orlando's bid was endorsed by President Obama earlier this year.  The 2014 Gay Games will be held in Cleveland and Akron.

Amsterdam "Welcomes" Vladimir Putin

(Via JMG reader Lauren)

Topless Protesters & LGBT Activists Accost Vladimir Putin Who Then Denies Russian Oppression Of Gays

Topless protesters from the Ukrainian group FEMEN accosted Russian President Vladimir Putin today at a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Three members of the women's rights group Femen, which has protested against Russia's detention of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot around Europe, disrupted his visit to a trade fair in the German city of Hanover. They stripped to the waist and shouted slogans calling Putin a "dictator" before being bundled away by security men. "Regarding this performance, I liked it," grinned Putin at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I did not catch what they were shouting, I did not even see if they were blondes, brunettes or chestnut-haired.

Later today at a meeting in Amsterdam over 1000 gay activists demonstrated against Putin's presence.

Many houses and bridges in the historic canal district of Amsterdam were draped with banners and the rainbow flag of the gay pride movement, protesting about what human rights organizations say is institutional repression of gays in Russia. "Putin go homo," read one, echoing the message "Putin go home" on the front page of Friday's NRC Next daily newspaper. "I'm protesting against the anti-gay law in Russia because it's unreal. You can't tell people to go back into the closet," said one protester.

Putin reacted to the gay demonstrators with an outrageous lie, telling the press, "In the Russian Federation - so that it is clear to everybody - there is no infringement on the rights of sexual minorities. These people, like everyone else, enjoy all the same rights and freedoms as everyone else."

Amsterdam Pride's Canal Parade

Another fab gay event on my bucket list. One of these days.

DNA Spray

A business district in Amsterdam has begun using "DNA spray," an adhesive mist triggered by store clerks, motion detectors, or by remote camera surveillance operators during a robbery or holdup. Chemical markers injected into the mist identify the precise time and location of the incident.

“The procedure is simple: during a holdup a nebula of invisible liquid with a synthetic DNA code is spread in the space. the liquid attaches itself to the clothes and skin of the perpetrator and cannot simply be washed off. DNA-spray is practically invisible to the human eye, but lights up under UV-light. Suspects with traces of DNA-spray are easily traceable to the scene of the crime for the police.”

The above-linked Dutch blogger worries that DNA spray could be used by governments to identify the attendees at political protests.

AMSTERDAM: Hundreds March In Protest Of Rise In Anti-Gay Violence

Led by well-known drag performers, hundreds marched in Amsterdam today in protest of the city's recent rash of violence against LGBT citizens. The rally was organized by the LGBT group Right To Feel Safe. Posters with the details of each of the attacks were affixed to street poles at the incidents' locations along the march route. A fuller account of today's action can be found in Dutch here.

(Tipped by JMG reader Tim)

American Bigots Take Their Anti-Gay Road Show To Amsterdam

At the World Congress of Families in Amsterdam, Christian activists from the U.S. warned yesterday that homosexuals are planning to squelch religious expression in the name of marriage equality.

The comments came from attorney Ben Bull of the Alliance Defense Fund. He warned it is common for Christians and pastors to suffer at the hands of homosexual activists, simply for abiding by biblical principles. "One of the things that the leaders of the homosexual legal agenda have been saying for years is that whenever religious freedom or the free-speech rights of Christians interferes with their agenda, that their agenda trumps," he pointed out to conference attendees. "There's a freight train coming and it's heading right towards Christians, and it's called the homosexual legal agenda -- and it will run right over our constitutional rights unless we're heard loud and clear," he added. Homosexual activists, Bull explained, have used the courts rather than elections to consistently gain ground.

Little things like the fact that no one has ever had their freedom of speech suppressed over marriage equality doesn't stand in the way of their bigotry.

Amsterdam's Mayor Weds NY Couples To Send Message To U.S.

Yesterday the mayor of Amsterdam married five bi-national couples on a gay Pride party boat to send a message to the United States about marriage equality and immigration reform.

The mayor of Amsterdam married five American-Dutch gay couples on Saturday in an implicit criticism of the lack of same-sex marriage in many U.S. states. Tens of thousands of spectators cheered as Mayor Job Cohen performed the ceremony on a cruise around the city's canals to celebrate the high point of the city's gay pride festival. Eight years ago Cohen presided over the first legal Dutch gay marriage. All five couples had at least one partner from New York, where a battle over the legalization of gay marriage rages on.

"For me it's a message to New York, the most liberal state, the most hip state, to get with it," said Ira Siff, an opera professional from New York who was about to marry his partner, opera singer Hans Heijnis. The New York-Amsterdam connection is much in the news this year, with the cities celebrating a 400-year relationship in 2009. Cohen called the couples a "figurehead" for that bond. "Your transatlantic love is proof of the lasting connection between old and new Amsterdam," Cohen said in the service.

Very nice.