Next year gay soldiers of the Dutch Army will participate officially in the national Gay Parade on 30 June in Bergen-op-Zoom. This year uniformed police officers already participated in the parade. Major Peter Kees Hamstra, president of the Stichting Homosexualiteit & Krijgsmacht (Foundation for Homosexuality & the Military), announced last Saturday that in 2007 uniformed army officers will participate too.

According to a research report of the Dutch Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau (SCP) 90% of the Dutch military accept homosexuals in the army. The Netherlands were the first country to allow gays in the army. The prohibition on gays in the military was lifted in 1974. The SCP report was commissioned by Cees van der Knaap, the Secretary of State for Defence, who wanted to ascertain the level of tolerance of gays in army combat units. According to the SCP the level of tolerance is lowest in these units. Secretary van der Knaap stated that discrimination or condescending behaviour towards homosexuals will not be tolerated within the defence forces. “Each incident is one too many. Everybody must be able to work here,” the Secretary of State for Defence said.

In an interview with De Volkskrant Major Hamstra complained that tolerance of gays is not as good as is generally believed. “There is tolerance, though it is a thin layer.” “All the legal obstacles have been taken. The one thing to do now is to accomplish a culture change. And we urgently need this.”

“Homosexuality is accepted, but one is not allowed to show it,” the Major said. “To kiss your partner is not done. Neither is walking hand in hand.” He announced that in 2007 uniformed army and police officers will participate in the parade on “Pink Saturday”: “Then we will show the world that there are gays in this army.”

According to the SCP, lesbian soldiers encounter less intolerance than male homosexuals, probably because they are no threat to the “macho culture” of the army. The SCP also thinks that men object less to two women kissing than to two men.

Dutch gay soldiers on foreign missions often do not disclose their sexual inclination for fear of the reactions of foreign colleagues. “The Netherlands are pioneers [in allowing gays in the military],” Major Hamstra says. “In most other armies the rule ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ applies. As a consequence most Dutch soldiers do not out themselves during foreign missions. One colonel did not go to Sarajevo, specifically for that reason. He was an exception, though. The secretary of our Foundation has just returned from Afghanistan.”

When foreign colleagues ask about his family Major Hamstra has a standard reply. “I tell them ‘I have a friend,’ and I do not specify the latter’s sex. And I tell them I have a little daughter, which is true.”

Though Major Hamstra says that kissing homosexuals are not tolerated in the Dutch army, foreigners who want to come and live in the Netherlands are confronted with kissing gays in a movie that is part of a compulsory integration test of the Dutch government. Does this mean that the Dutch army is out of touch with Dutch secular “values”?