Gay and Lesbian Liberation in the Low Countries: From Stonewall to Pink Pillar

Abstract

This article examines the legacy of Stonewall in the Netherlands and Belgium, exploring how the gay and lesbian liberation movement resonated with pre-existing activism, national political cultures, and the peculiar structure of civil society in the Low Countries. American influences were real but limited until the later 1970s when the emergence of anti-gay politics in the US fuelled international solidarity under the flag of Stonewall and Gay Pride. The Dutch and Flemish authorities’ willingness to accommodate the mainstream movements early on limited the appeal and effectiveness of confrontational liberationism.