A.S.V.Gay protests at the Canal Parade: “Pride has sold its soul”
On Saturday 1 August, the boat parade will take place for the thirtieth year running as part of Amsterdam Pride. The LGBTQ+ student association A.S.V.Gay is taking part in a black-and-white protest boat to oppose the commercialisation of the event. “Pride is more than just a party.”
“Pride is protest”, “The first Pride was a riot” and “Queers against genocide”. With these messages in black on white, the LGBTQ+ student association A.S.V.Gay will be sailing through the canals this coming Saturday during the Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade.
The boat is a protest against the increasing commercialisation of Amsterdam Pride, says Emms Buining (25), a member of A.S.V.Gay’s Pride committee and responsible for the boat’s design. “Amsterdam Pride has sold its soul so that large companies can showcase their brands at the expense of the queer community. Companies such as Booking.com are taking part in Pride whilst their own internal affairs are not in order.”
A step backwards
The organisers of the boat are not the only ones to claim that Pride has been “hijacked by corporations”. In early June, the queer student society Spotlight “explicitly distanced itself” from Amsterdam Pride for the first time. The main reason: the presence of main sponsor Booking.com, a company on the boycott list of the international pro-Palestinian BDS movement.
A.S.V.Gay, however, has chosen to take part in the boat parade. Buining: “It’s a mixed bag. But with the protest boat, we specifically want to bring activism back to Pride and show that Pride is more than just a party,” says Buining. And that is necessary, because over the past five years the student association has seen the position of queer people in society deteriorate. “Rights are being eroded, and the persecution of trans people is on the rise: there are campaigns in bus shelters that cast doubt on the identity of trans people. The political climate has become much more homophobic and transphobic.”
Black and white
The boat – which will be assembled on Friday 31 July – is black and white in colour, with pink elements, referencing the gay symbol, the pink triangle. On the side of the boat, photographs depict a hundred years of queer emancipation: from the Stonewall riots in New York to the legalisation of marriage for all. “Black and white are the classic protest colours,” says Buining. “We’re also inviting people to bring their own protest signs.”
In addition to the protest boat, A.S.V.Gay has also launched a photo series on Instagram, in which members explain what Pride is really about. For example, they discuss the long waiting times for transgender care, the political debates surrounding trans rights, solidarity with queer people elsewhere in the world and the fact that “being able to be yourself” as a queer student is not yet a given for everyone.
