Het is een grote dag voor Amerika , en bedankt Nederland!

[FlaGatorJD]

Whether you're hailing the same-sex marriage decision
as a beacon of light in American history, or an abomination
likely to cause natural disasters, you can either thank
or blame the Dutch!

Of course, you probably already know where I stand:

Het is een grote dag voor Amerika , en bedankt Nederland!

Here's video of the first gay weddings in Amsterdam in 2001.
So it only took us 14 years to catch up.

The ceremony was performed by the mayor of Amsterdam,
and while it's not in the video, the first couple surprised the
mayor, when they presented him with their wedding bands.
They secretly had rings tatooed under them prior to
the ceremony. The rings are on display at the Amsterdam Museum.

While of course some of the video is in Dutch, the feelings and emotions
are in a universal language-Love.

&feature=player_detailpage

[Kber]

1. Someone had to go first!

And goodness knows it wasn't going to be us!

As Churchill said (or something to the effect): America can always be counted on to do the right thing. After she has exhausted all other options.

[Betty Karlson]

2. The mayor confesses:

"Ten years ago I did not understand why gays were so keen on marriage, but now I do. Hetersexuality is the norm, but homosexuality is just as normal."

By the way, the mayor went on to be the leader of the Labour Party in the Dutch parliament. He finished his career as rector magnificus at the University of Amsterdam, a position his father had held decades earlier.

The gay rights activist to his right (Henk Krol) at the beginning of the video says: "we can now abolish the word gay marriage in favour of just marriage". He is now one of the 75 Dutch senators.

[FlaGatorJD]

8. That's something that caught my eye too about his evolving position

Sounds like someone else we know who evolved, doesn't it?
Conservatives are whining about how the President changed his position.
I'm so glad he's an intelligent man who evolves

Thanks for the background stuff. I was in the Amsterdam Museum 2
years ago and saw the display with the rings, and it was very moving.
Although the Pride boat parade was one of the best celebrations/parades
I have ever attended.

Hope you're having an gezellig day

[Betty Karlson]

9. Indeed the boyfriend and I are having a gezellige day.

He's gardening, I'm alternating between writing letters and procrastinating via the world wide web.

wishing you a prettige dag too.

---------------

This was just three or four years, by the way, before the Dutch Christian-Democratic prime-minister said he could conceive a gay leader for his own centre-right party (obviously hinting at the then Finance Minister Joop Wijn, who was very open about his husband). Joop Wijn had been one of three Christian-Democrats to vote yea for the bill establishing same-sex marriage in 2001.

[FlaGatorJD]

11. I was going to say Tot Ziens, although I got busy and you've probably left now

Then I realized that I could use one of my favorite Dutch words:
Doie. .eeeeeeee!

I lived in De Pijp for a little while and tried to learn as much as I could.
I loved to hear my girlfriend tell her friends goodbye.

It's a little difficult to learn Dutch there, because the Dutch will usually respond in perfect English, when they hear someone like me struggling with Dutch.
I was very impressed and a little frustrated.

Thanks again for the Dutch history. I had no idea how many
ways the Dutch have for saying goodbye, until I was checking my spelling.

http://blogs.transparent.com/dutch/29-ways-to-say-goodbye-in-dutch/

[cyberswede]

3. Well, it took some states less time to catch up

...like MA (2003) CT (2008), and Iowa (2009), but I'm glad the rest of the country has now caught up.

[HassleCat]

4. The Pilgrims found out

The Dutch have always been a very tolerant people. We learn in grade school how the Pilgrims (English Calvinists) came here from England to escape religious persecution, but they always skip the part about how they escaped religious persecution in Holland first, then went back to England, then came here. The Dutch accepted them, as they have always accepted weird people, but civil authorities got upset when the Pilgrims insisted on public punishment for people who had sinned. They would not allow the Pilgrims to publicly humiliate people for not attending church, flirting with the opposite sex, etc. The Pilgrim children were learning Dutch, and picking up Dutch values concerning tolerance. This worried the Pilgrim elders that their values and way of life would be wiped out by liberal thought. (Does this sound familiar?) So they went back to England, then moved to Massachusetts, which was chosen because they had so many Boston Redsox fans among the congregation..

[Betty Karlson]

5. The City of Leiden still maintains one of the Pilgrim Fathers' houses

as a small museum. Obama's ancestor among the pilgrim fathers had a house nearby, but that one was demolished in the 19th century during urban renovation.

[HassleCat]

6. Would like to see that

I bet the historical perspective is a little different than what we get in US public school. Or what we got 50 years ago, when I learned about the Pilgrims.

[Betty Karlson]

7. Like I said: it is only a small museum.

The pilgrim houses weren't mansions. But the historical inner city of Leiden still has a few commemorative sites for the Pilgrim Fathers, all of them in at least two languages. And the city archive has some documents relating to them as well.

Obama's ancestry was dicovered by the professor of University History at Leiden University.

[mnhtnbb]

10. That is very interesting.

Sounds very much like the right wing Christians here in the US today, doesn't it? They are being persecuted because
the government won't allow them to condemn/discriminate against people who don't live according to their Puritanical values.

Love the reason for choosing Massachusetts!

[awoke_in_2003]

12. I was thinking of the Netherlands the other day

Friday night I was listening to the nuts on RW radio- they were saying that punishment always happens to countries who endorse "sinful acts". Since I used to work for a Dutch company, I started thinking of the punishments. They are all at least bilingual. They are all paid a decent wage. They all have a minimum of 6 weeks of vacation a year. I will accept these punishments.

[Betty Karlson]

13. Unfortunately, the "liberal" and "labour" coalition government has been introducing

labour flexibility laws since 2010. The result is that the effective wages and income security have worryingly decreased for 1/3 of the Dutch. Paid vacations are disappearing too for the unlucky few. In the Netherlands, the Liberals are the all but one most right-wing party.