The Netherlands Deputy General Consul Vincent Storimans in San Francisco has been busy getting ready for a royal visit to the city.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will be in town next week, touring the Castro Tuesday, September 6, between 9:20 and 10 a.m. They will also speak with LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS community leaders.
The royals' tour will begin at the GLBT Historical Society Museum and will proceed to the Castro Theatre and Twin Peaks Tavern. At the tavern, they will meet briefly with San Francisco LGBTQ community leaders District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman; San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D.; San Francisco LGBT Community Center Executive Director Rebecca Rolf; and National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon.
"It's exciting that they have chosen the Bay Area to visit and that they are reaching out to local LGBTQ community leaders to not only give them a tour of some of our most historic places here in the Castro but to sit down and have a conversation about what's happening here in our community," said TerMeer.
TerMeer, a 39-year-old gay man who is of Dutch ancestry, looks forward to speaking with the royals about HIV/AIDS issues here in the U.S. and learning more about the Netherlands' response to the epidemic and other public health threats to the LGBTQ community, he said.
Mandelman said he is anticipating the visit.
"I am very much looking forward to meeting the royal couple and welcoming them to the Castro," he stated. "The Netherlands has long been recognized as one of the most progressive countries in the world in regard to policies impacting the LGBTQ+ community. They were the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001, having allowed registered domestic partnerships between same-sex couples since 1998."
Welcoming the king and queen is not an everyday affair for Storimans, 42, who is proud that the Netherlands and the Dutch people serve as an example and champion LGBTQ rights around the world.
The royal couple's visit to the Castro makes a statement and "has a certain relevance," Storimans, a gay man, explained about them associating "themselves with this neighborhood, with its history, with its background, [and] with its community."
"That's something we're proud of as a kingdom," he told the Bay Area Reporter in an exclusive interview at the Netherlands Consulate General of San Francisco on August 25. The B.A.R. spoke with the Dutch diplomat about LGBTQ rights in the Netherlands and the U.S., working in one of the most significant cities for LGBTQ people, and the upcoming royal visit.
The royals will also visit Stanford University during their California trip, Storimans said.
The Netherlands' consulate in San Francisco serves an estimated 40,000 Dutch citizens in 13 Western states: California, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The fact that Storimans comes from a liberal country that has been at the forefront of LGBTQ rights for decades, among other progressive policies, and that he is working in San Francisco, which has been at the forefront of many LGBTQ issues in the U.S., is not lost on him. Storimans loves San Francisco so much that he has extended his diplomatic tour beyond the usual four-year term to five. He expects to stay in his role in the city for another year, he said.
"San Francisco, given its history and its outlook, it's a natural draw for LGBT diplomats," Storimans said.
The lawyer-turned-diplomat served at the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Beijing and Moscow before coming to the U.S. He worked at the embassy in Washington, D.C. then came to San Francisco. He worked on a trade mission in Turkey.
Russia is at the opposite end of the LGBTQ rights spectrum. In 2011, when Storimans served in that country, "things were very different," he said about the anti-LGBTQ political climate.
In the Bay Area, Storimans works with Dutch and American technology companies in Silicon Valley, as well as other companies with connections to the Netherlands. He said that he enjoys his job as a networker and connector building business relationships between the two countries, which he sees as his primary job.
That doesn't mean that the consulate does not host LGBTQ events from time to time. One event he was working on that was canceled because of COVID-19 was screening the Dutch documentary "Atlas2018 — I will speak, I will speak!", about people living with HIV/AIDS in different regions of the world to see "how it is for people living with HIV/AIDS," he said.
LGBTQ first nation
The Netherlands emerged from the 20th century as one of the most progressive countries in the world. It was a U-turn from the 1950s where Storimans would not be able to hold his current position as a gay man. Mid-century, homosexuals were barred from holding public sector jobs due to their sexual orientation.
The country decriminalized homosexuality in 1971. A decade later, the Dutch government banned discrimination against LGBTQ people in 1981. Two decades later, in 2001, the Benelux country became the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Last year, the Dutch celebrated 20 years of marriage equality. (The Benelux countries are Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands.)
The Netherlands didn't stop there. In 2019, King Willem-Alexander addressed the United Nations General Assembly and welcomed LGBTQ progress around the world.
"The kingdom of the Netherlands welcomes the fact that the rights of lesbian, gay, and transgender people, and of other minority communities, are being laid down in law in more and more places around the world," he said. "We hope this trend continues. But ultimately, words must translate into action. The fight against discrimination, whether open or hidden, must continue on every continent."
Veterans of putting words into action, Dutch leaders continue to remain vigilant, setting goals to improve LGBTQ rights for Dutch people and queer people wherever the country has an outpost. The government recently concluded a four-year Gender and LGBTI Equality Policy Plan in 2021 that examined LGBTQ equality in the labor market; safety, security, and acceptance; and gender diversity and equal treatment.
The plan was an indirect response to recent studies and surveys by Human Rights Watch and research firm Insights Paramount. The studies found signs of acceptance of LGBTQ people and marriage equality dropped slightly, reported the Netherlands Times.
While LGBTQ acceptance has taken a slight dip in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Mark Rutte did not mince words with anti-LGBTQ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at a General Affairs Council meeting of European leaders in Luxembourg in 2021. Responding to Hungary's assault on LGBTQ rights, he angrily told Orbán, "If you don't like it, there is also an alternative: Leave the union."
Storimans told the B.A.R., "The important work we do ... is more geared toward the 70 or so countries where homosexuality is still punishable by law" and advocating for those countries to legally "secure rights" for LGBTQ people.
Back in the Netherlands, the country continues to assess the status of LGBTQ rights of Dutch citizens and how to improve on them by setting an LGBTQ strategic plan.
In October 2021, Rutte announced a royal did not have to relinquish the crown if they had a same-sex partner. The decision opened the Netherlands' future to the possibility of having two queens, two kings, or a transgender king or queen.
"It doesn't really make any sense for a royal house that is 'pro-LGBT and LGBT rights' ... [or] the powers that be to make this into an issue or something problematic, so it came natural to us," Storimans said.
The public is welcome to meet the king and queen of the Netherlands on September 6 as they tour the Castro.
Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or [email protected]
Corrections, 9/1/22: The original version of this article contained several errors. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will visit Stanford University during their trip. A trade mission was to go to Los Angeles.
The Netherlands' consulate in San Francisco serves an estimated 40,000 Dutch citizens in 13 Western states: California, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Deputy General Consul Vincent Storimans served at the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Beijing and Moscow before coming to the U.S. He worked at the embassy in Washington, D.C. then came to San Francisco. He previously worked on a trade mission in Turkey but did not serve in the embassies there.
References to Storimans working on the incident involving the downed passenger airliner while serving in Moscow have been removed from the article as that incident occurred three years after he served there.
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