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…)

By Eboo Patel

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…)

By Frans Timmermans:

Freedom of expression. Few concepts have generated more debate in the Netherlands in recent years. America is often considered the Promised Land by the apostles of free speech. They think free speech is truly free in the USA and not restricted in any way. In contrast, they view Europe as a continent where governments capitulate to censorship and where people are being muzzled. Indeed, there are differences which have to do with tradition, experience and history. But it is a lot less black-and-white than people sometimes contend.
In the past two centuries of frequently difficult and extremely painful struggle for emancipation, the Americans have learned that freedom of speech involves much more than the relationship between citizen and state. Americans have learned that freedom of expression only works if citizens are prepared to handle it with caution. Bitter experience has cured the Americans of abusiveness, apparently a virtue in the Netherlands these days. One treats others with respect. People and groups who fail to do so – and there are still plenty of them – place themselves outside social discourse. (more…)