Europe 2007: 4 Augustus 2007 All of Amsterdam Honors Gay Culture

Poets, philosophers, and even politicians sometimes speak of human equality. But in Amsterdam, they practice it. Actually, they rejoice in it. So, although the Dutch are well known for their pragmatism, they are much more than merely pragmatic, they present a model for human dignity and respect - we're all in this together, and our differences are to be celebrated. My first taste of this was on Rembrandtplein, Vrijdag nacht, 3 Augustus. These two drag-queen types below showed up and were parading around chatting everybody up. All of the locals were smiling, laughing, and enjoying a fun time with them. Even the tourists joined in and took photos and just enjoyed the whole scene. It was like, hey, these guys are having a good time! Proost!

The next 4 photos are courtesy of nighttours.com, where you can find a photo collection of the entire Canal Parade on Zaterdag (Saturday). The Canal Parade is the highlight of Gay Pride weekend and consists of a parade of canal boats -just like floats in a traditional American street parade - cruising by on one of Amsterdam's main canals, the Prinsengracht. This map
shows the route.

The boats contain straight, queer, bi, transgender, gay, lesbian, drag, cross-dressing, people of all stripes and types. A beautiful celebration of diversity and acceptance. It was awesome to watch hundreds of thousands of people cheering on the blatant non-heterosexuality of the event. Plus, most of the boats were blaring out really great music, and everybody was laughing their heads off!

Actually click on this link from Youtube.com to see a 4-minute video of the parade.

Below are two Dutch friends of ours that went to the parade with us - It's Edwin and Afra - obviously having a great time! Plus Anne just behind them.

In the photo below are Rob, Piet, Chuck and Kathleen. That's Anne in the lower right corner of the photo doing a Nicky -get- in -the -picture.

Below is Afra, Nick, and Heather.

This guy was cool. I was standing on the Reguliersgracht bridge over the Prinsengracht when he pulled up on this cool bike. Check out the heels! Hey - who is that doing a Nicky-get-in-the-picture with the green blouse on?

Now, here's the famous Dutch pragmatism - they were selling ice-cold Grolsch beers with built-in foam insulation for street drinking. Below, Anne and Kat enjoy one. Or two.