By Hans Pieter Herman & Ira Siff

How to describe an unforgettable wedding day. It was the best of days. Only a few months ago we heard about the search for 5 same-sex couples to be married by the Mayor of Amsterdam during Gay Pride in Holland, as part of  I do. I amsterdam. We’re happy to say that we are one of the 5 couples that got selected!

It truly was an unbelievable experience. 560.000 People stood alongside the canals celebrating a sunshine filled day while we were on the wedding boat during canal pride with Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam, joining us into the bonds of matrimony.
The organization did an amazing job in making the event very special for all of the 5 couples getting married.

In the end the whole I do I do team really succeeded in making it possible that our wedding felt individual and special to us as a couple. During our ceremony when Ira broke the glass according to Jewish tradition thousands of people cheered and it was a very emotional and heartfelt experience.

Luckily we did find shoes in time that made us feel secure on the boat and confident enough not having to be ambulanced by boat  to the hospital with pieces of glass in Ira’s foot. Pictures and comments were sent all over the world in newspaper articles and through TV correspondence in numerous countries. Hopefully it will give lot’s of governments that still do not value human rights a chance to reconsider their discriminatory policy about their tax paying citizens that just happened to be born gay.

We spent our 10 day honeymoon in Umbria, Italy and just yesterday we had to say goodbye since Ira left for New York to go home while Hans lives in Amsterdam and is about to leave for the Ukraine to work. Even now, when we do not even know when we will have the time or money to travel towards spending time with each other again, we do know that our now legally bound love will keep us together for ever.

About the authors
Hans Pieter Herman is a Dutch freelance opera and concert singer who lives in Amsterdam where he also teaches voice. Ira Siff is a New Yorker who directs opera, performs, teaches voice, writes about opera and is Weekly Commentator on the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast. Hans and Ira met in New York and fell in love in 2006. Beside their love for each other and each others cities they share a deep love for Italy where they will spend their honeymoon.

The New York Times’ article on I do. I amsterdam.

By Hans Pieter Herman & Ira Siff

Only a few months ago we heard about the search for 5 same-sex couples to be married by the Mayor of Amsterdam during Gay Pride in Holland, as part of  I do. I amsterdam. We’re happy to say that we are one of the 5 couples that got selected! After receiving multiple congratulations from friends and family it left us with less than two months to arrange this wedding.

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The ceremonial part is all in the great care of the city of Amsterdam, run by a special “I do, I do” team. But invitations, flowers, photographer, dinner, honeymoon, suits, rings, almost everything still needed to be arranged in less than two months and since we’re both working away from home this summer, it was quite a challenge. Luckily, everything is more or less under control now. Friends and family are getting plane tickets and hotel rooms are being booked.

However, we still need to find shoes.

Shoes are always an important aspect of a major event but since the whole day will be spent on a boat with 200.000 people standing alongside the canals witnessing the ceremony and hearing the actual I do’s over the speakers, one does not want to slip and fall into the water.

We are overwhelmed by the daily response and positive reactions from everyone we encounter. Two people being celebrated by thousands and their union being honored by a government - tying the knot, like billions did before them, just because they can’t live without their love for one another. One would almost think that gay rights are no longer an issue in this world. Of course we know this is not the case and thus it feels great to be able to show everybody, including thousands of still oppressed people in the world, desperately fighting for their human rights, that things are changing.

 
About the authors
Hans Pieter Herman is a Dutch freelance opera and concert singer who lives in Amsterdam where he also teaches voice. Ira Siff is a New Yorker who directs opera, performs, teaches voice, writes about opera and is Weekly Commentator on the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast. Hans and Ira met in New York and fell in love in 2006. Beside their love for each other and each others cities they share a deep love for Italy where they will spend their honeymoon. Check back with NY400 in August to read all about their wedding during Amsterdam’s Gay Pride!

The New York Times’ article on I do. I amsterdam.

By Cihan Tekeli:

Defining your identity as being a Westerner, Dutch in my case, and a Muslim might be problematic for some. But reality teaches us that millions of American and European Muslims don’t have a problem with their identities. When you are able to be open and confident about your identity you build trust. This trust enables you to contribute to the future of our pluralistic societies. We cannot allow ourselves to be trapped by segregation and intellectual ghettoization.

We are living in a global world full of challenges. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the west are law-abiding, contributing citizens. It’s a margin that sheds suspicion. At the same time we cannot deny the challenges within our communities. Whether that be cultural or problematic readings of scripture. For we also have to act against the minority complex and the victim mentality in our societies. We are not minorities or victims, we are citizens. As engaged citizens we must refuse to retract into social and psychological ghetto’s. We have to be more engaged in society by speaking out. By showing people, that we are not as different as people might think. It’s not a question of Islam, it’s a question of Muslims. (more…)

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President Obama has gone a long way towards showing a different face of America to the Muslim world , and now a Dutch Minister is following in the President’s footsteps by showing a different face of Europe to Muslims in America.

Frans Timmermans, Minister for European Affairs in the Dutch Government, has a very different understanding of the role that Muslims can play on the Continent than the Europeans we hear a lot from, like Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (more…)

By Frans Timmermans

I visited Dearborn today, the centre of the Muslim Community in the US. Very impressive. I came to listen and learn, and to share some of my concerns about the lack of real dialogue in Dutch society.

My country has always had minorities. We are good at allowing people to make their own choices but not at dialogue. And that is what the world at this time needs; dialogue.

But today fear has become the driving force in politics. The preferred object of this fear is Islam. Why? People have the feeling they lost control over their lives - there is a lot of insecurity in a fast changing society and globalizing world. There is also widespread pessimism - people fear that their children will be worse off than they themselves. Change, then, is not perceived as a good thing, but rather as a threat.  In Holland, muslins, many of whom are relatively new in society, often exemplify change and thus are seen as a threat to society as we know it. (more…)