LGBT tolerance slumps in the Netherlands as debate turns vicious

Less than a quarter of schoolboys in the Netherlands have a positive view of homosexuality, almost half the proportion of four years ago, according to a Europe-wide survey.

The HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) poll found that just 22% of boys aged 12 to 16 had a positive view of homosexuality, compared to 40% the last time the survey was carried out in 2021.

Gonneke Stevens, professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University, said there was a “worrying turn in the trend” after decades of growing acceptance of same-sex relationships.

“In recent years sexual diversity has been increasingly questioned by leading figures in society, including politicians,” said Stevens, who led the Dutch research team in collaboration with the Trimbos mental health institute.

The COC, which campaigns for LGBGTI rights in the Netherlands, described the findings as a “frightening development.” Director Marie Ricardo said: “We badly need the young generation for a free country in which everyone can be themselves.”

The survey found girls were still more accepting of homosexuality than boys, but the proportion had fallen from 78% to just over half (51%) since 2021.

Manosphere

Stevens said there was a clear link between deepening intolerance and the rise of trends on social media such as the “manosphere”, which provides a platform for aggressive and discriminatory messages about women and gays.

“The fact is that in recent years young people have been exposed to these views and that in the same period they have taken a more negative view of homosexuality.”

Prime minister Rob Jetten, who is due to marry his male partner Nicolás Keenan next year, said the figures were “shocking”.

“The influence of social media as huge and the cabinet will look at how we can put pressure on the social media companies to take action if a lot of content is appearing online that has a bad influence on young people,” he told RTL Nieuws.

Hardline conservative organisations have also pushed back against efforts to teach children about tolerance by promoting spurious links between homosexuality and paedophilia.

In 2023 children’s writer Pim Lammers had to go into hiding after receiving death threats when his novel De Boer en de Dierenarts (“The farmer and the vet”), about a same-sex relationship, was targeted by the radical Catholic organisation Civitas Christiana after he was asked to write a poem for children’s book week.

The sex education institute Rutgers, which organises the annual “Week van de Lentekriebels” (Spring Fever Week), won a court case against Civitas Christiana banning it from making false statements or publishing its “black book”, listing people and organisations that it accuses of “sexualising” children. The judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal in May.