Around 25% of gay men and women experience public negative comments about their sexuality, according to a new report by the government’s socio-cultural think-tank SCP.

In total 29% of men and 23% of women have experienced negative reactions, mainly ‘disgusted looks’, swearing and so-called jokes, the SCP survey found. Some 0.5% have experienced physical attacks, such as spitting and actual violence.
‘If you cannot walk hand in hand through the streets, then there is something fundamentally wrong with the acceptance [of homosexuality] in the Netherlands,’ Vera Bergkamp of the gay rights lobby group COC, told news agency ANP in a reaction.
Nevertheless, some 83% of the population think gay men and women should be allowed to live their lives freely, the report shows. Some 3% of Dutch men and 1.4% of women say they are gay, while 6% of men and 16% of women claim to be bisexual.
The report was carried out on behalf of the education and culture ministry.