AMSTERDAM--Under the theme “OneKingdomOneLove,” the Kingdom Boat won the Amsterdam Gay Pride (AGP) Canal Parade Saturday afternoon. This was the Kingdom Boat’s first time participating and it won because judges say it best carried AGP 2015’s theme “share” and carried the best message, which relayed that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights are not the same throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Revellers on the Kingdom Boat all wore the newly created pink crown logo on T-shirts, the crown showing five stars to represent all parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The boat was festively decorated in yellow and pink, with the names of the various Kingdom partners displayed on hearts and raised by umbrellas.
"St. Maarten was well-represented at this incredible experience with our Kingdom partners and it is amazing that on our first try-out the gate, we were able to capture the top prize!" participant Melissa Gumbs, told The Daily Herald.
“SAFE is of course very pleased and proud of this, given our months-long participation and input in this venture,” St. Maarten/St. Martin Alliance for Equality (SAFE) President Lysanne Charles-Arrindell added in an invited comment to this newspaper.
“It is our hope that the Kingdom Boat and the events leading up to it, created a space for more understanding, further and future dialogue so that one day our aspirations become a reality.
“This is our first foray into Amsterdam Gay Pride, but we are hoping that it will not be the last. Any effort that can raise awareness and bring more understanding concerning LGBT people across the kingdom, in a manner which improves LGBT lives is applauded and will get the full support of SAFE.
“... St. Maarten was well-represented by a team of St. Maarteners in the Netherlands, both on the Kingdom Boat and in the events leading up to the canal parade and SAFE thanks all St. Maarten participants for their time, energy and contributions.
“The theme of the boat speaks to the fact that since we are indeed one kingdom, we should seek ways to ensure that love is respected across the kingdom; of course including LGBT love. At the moment marriage equality is a reality only in the Netherlands and its Caribbean municipalities, but not in Curaçao, Aruba or St. Maarten, there is continued need for kingdom discussions on how to achieve full LGBT emancipation across the kingdom.
“Even in the Caribbean municipalities of St. Eustatius and Bonaire there is more work to be done to improve understanding of LGBT love.”
SAFE, along with Aruban and Curaçaolenean counterpart organisations Alternative Lifestyle Federation Aruba (ALFA) and Curaçao Pride Foundation Fundashon Orguyo Korsou FOKO recently made a joint declaration, calling for parliamentarians, political parties, lawyers and community leaders of these islands to recognise LGBT rights as human rights.
Earlier during AGP, representatives from across the Kingdom including Member of Parliament (MP) Desiree de Sousa-Croes also held presentations and updated members of Lower House (“Tweede Kamer”), Amsterdam Municipality and oldest LGBT organisation in the world Centre for Culture and Leisure COC (“Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum”) on the state of LGBT rights in the various communities. Gumbs represented SAFE/St. Maarten at the meeting in this capacity.
With the popular event being covered by various media outlets, the Kingdom Boat also caught the attention of Reuters writer Yoruk Bahceli who called it “a sobering reminder that gay rights do not extend to all in the Kingdom of the Netherlands,” even though “the Netherlands itself became the first country to legalise gay marriage in 2001.”
The Canal Parade was attended by 10s of thousands of people and is a highlight of the annual AGP, this being the event’s 20th edition. The spectacle involved the boats covering a six-kilometre route around the city centre. Another first this year was a boat carrying refugees.
There were also a large number of commercial boats as well as barges carrying staff from the Defence Ministry and the city transport department.
Police warned in the afternoon that the area around the Magere Bridge over the Amstel was too full and urged visitors to find a different place to watch the parade.
In the morning, one boat carrying 10 people was swamped by a wave and capsized close to the Hermitage Museum. All the crew were able to swim to safety, media outlet ANP reported.
