By Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis–
Off in the distance, we glimpsed a boat packed to the gills with African refugees. It was carrying some of the countless refugees who have fled Africa in search of freedom and safety in recent years. Thousands of such refugees have, in fact, died or gone missing as they have attempted to traverse the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.
But this boat was not attempting the harrowing journey across the Mediterranean. It was in very different waters—those of the Netherlands. And the boat was not about to capsize with its passengers frantically gesturing for help or calling out in desperation.
Indeed, the passengers on this boat were doing the opposite. They were jubilant LGBTIQ African refugees, smiling, waving, dancing, and singing, as members of the refugee contingent in last month’s spectacular Amsterdam Canal Pride celebration.
As far as we know, Amsterdam Canal Pride is unique. Instead of contingents making their way down the streets of the central city on foot or on flatbed trucks, buses, and convertibles, the Canal Pride parade takes place all on the water. Over 80 elaborately decorated boats glide through the extensive canal system of central Amsterdam and are filled with as many celebrants from across the Netherlands’ very diverse queer community as the boats can hold without tipping over (something we understand has happened in the past!).
And thousands upon thousands of people fill the streets that line the canals or hang out on private boats to watch the parade and join in the celebration. We were lucky to arrive early enough to nab a prime viewing spot on a small bridge overlooking one of the canals where we could cheer each contingent as they approached and ultimately headed below us under the bridge and further down the canal.
Amsterdam Canal Pride featured many different groups, such as HIV/AIDS organizations, women’s contingents, bears, bi+ people, firefighters, and police (who appeared to be warmly welcomed), fetish pride, and the Dutch armed forces (who stood motionless in salute until a pounding disco beat began and they let loose, breaking into exuberant dance).
There were also contingents from different countries around the world, political parties, including Democrats Abroad (with whom we led a “Ka-ma-la” chant from our perch on the bridge), and the Dutch government itself. Homemade signs included: “I Heart Gender Ideology,” “Cinnamon Rolls, not Gender Roles,” and “Live, Laugh, Lesbian”—and many other creative variations of this year’s theme, “TOGETHER in Pride.”
The refugee contingent was particularly inspiring to us, first and foremost because of all that the refugees had gone through to be there. Could any of them have imagined as they were fighting for their lives in rickety boats on the open seas or otherwise making their way to Europe that someday they would be reveling at Amsterdam Canal Pride? The refugees seemed to be taking time to celebrate how far they had come.
Further, the jubilant refugees appearing in the parade on a boat were powerfully symbolic. Boats have played and continue to play a critical role in millions of refugees’ odysseys in search of freedom around the world. One of my first jobs was working with Vietnamese refugees, actually known as the “boat people,” who risked everything when they got on boats in the dead of night to flee their homeland in the late 1970s and 1980s in the aftermath of the war. Some of those boats were brought to the refugee camp where I worked, and refugees would climb on them to take photos, remember, and feel gratitude that they had had the strength and good fortune to have made it as far as they had.
The refugees in last month’s Amsterdam parade were claiming the boat as a symbol of their own strength and pride, too—as LGBTIQ refugees who were taking their rightful place as part of Amsterdam’s LGBTIQ community. In the process, they were providing hope to many other queer people struggling to be safe and free across the globe.
Many of the refugees on the boat held aloft rainbow signs, asking a simple, straightforward question: “Are you together with us?” Our answer and we hope that of the broader community is a resounding, “Yes!” As the signs of another contingent urged: “Unite the Letters” because “Together We Are Strong.”
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for over three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. Their leadership in the grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA contributed in 2015 to making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
626 and Beyond
Published on September 5, 2024
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