Queer student association Spotlight distances itself from Amsterdam Pride

Booking

The main reason is the presence of Booking as the event’s principal sponsor, says chair Magdalena Styś. “That company is on the BDS boycott list, a global movement that advocates boycotting companies that help enable or profit from the genocide in Palestine. In addition, sponsor PricewaterhouseCoopers has also been involved in issues relating to queer rights. Those are not companies we want to be associated with.”

For that reason, Styś says that Spotlight will have no involvement whatsoever this year in the organisation or promotion of Pride University’s participation in WorldPride Amsterdam. Pride University is a collaboration between the pride networks of VU Amsterdam, the UvA, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA), ROC Amsterdam and Mediacollege Amsterdam. Spotlight will also not take part in the Canal Parade, just as it did not last year. At the time, the association already had doubts about the event’s sponsors, but it still helped promote Pride University.

Party
Styś notes that Pride Amsterdam is increasingly approached as a large, commercial celebration, while the activist element of the event is missing.“A huge amount of money is being made, and the event is strongly focused on sponsoring companies. But that does not serve the queer community. There are still many countries where being queer is criminalised. As many international UvA students know all too well, it can sometimes even be a matter of life or death.”