With the exhibition “Homosexuality_ies,” the Schwules Museum and the Deutsches Historisches Museum, both in Berlin, present the first comprehensive show on the history, politics and culture of homosexuality. The exhibition thematizes society’s handling of homosexuality in light of social, legal and scientific repression. It follows the gradual process of emancipation from the late eighteenth century into the present.

Now that Ireland has voted in favour of gay marriage in a referendum, the pressure on the German government to give same-sex couples the same rights as straight couples has increased. Germany still has not implemented gay marriage, and even a registered partnership has limitations.

In a joint statement, gay organisations on Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have called on their islands’ parliamentarians, government leaders, and leaders of the community to open up marriage for same-sex couples. These gay organisations are partners of COC Netherlands in the Pink Orange Alliance project.

The Dutch Labour party PvdA now also wants an explicit ban on LGBT discrimination in the Constitution. Last August, the PvdA spokeswomen for emancipation announced that her party is embracing the plea for this ban by the Dutch gay interest group COC. The party also wants to include a ban on transgender discrimination in the Equal Treatment Act.

In the build-up to the Canal Pride, Dutch news show EenVandaag investigated the state of LGBT acceptance in The Netherlands among her viewers. 67% of the 28,000 respondents think that things are going well, while over a quarter (27%) says the situation is bad. The 1,700 LGBTs that participated are less positive: four out of ten (39%) say that the acceptance of LGBTs in our country is doing badly, and a majority (55%) indicates they do not feel free to walk hand-in-hand on the street.

COC Netherlands wants Europe to come with a European emancipation policy for LGBTs and people with an intersex condition. COC Netherlands has made this appeal in a letter to Commissioner Frans Timmermans, the former Dutch Foreign Minister, who is now responsible for human rights.

This year from September 24-27, Rotterdam will be hosting Rotterdam Pride. It is the smashing sequel to the successful first edition. In Rotterdam, 174 nationalities and all orientations live together, so the organization chose sexual and cultural diversity as this year’s theme.

Dear Neighbors to the North, Under the motto “It’s never too late for a first time” I visited Antwerp Pride in the weekend of August 8. The visit was limited to Friday and Saturday, as this column had to be sent out to the publisher Sunday afternoon.

After years of disappointing sales figures, the Italian fashion houses are finally showing good sales. Many fashion houses are on the mend, partly because of the recovering world economy. 2014 showed an average growth of 4.6 percent, and the prospects for the second half of 2015 and for 2016 are positive.

Former Minister Hedy d’Ancona will deliver the annual Mosse Lecture on September 23, 2015. This year, the title of the lecture is “Voorbij de M/V-maatschappij?” (Past M/F Society?). She will review how since the 1970s, the emancipation of women and homosexuals became part of government policy.

Last year, the organizer of Pink Wednesday, Sander Ederveen, was approached to do something in Nijmegen with all the photos that are archived for the Pride Photo Award. And while Amsterdam is preparing for the 2015 award, people are looking back on the successful first edition of Pride Photo Nijmegen.

Before the leathermen, their otherwise kinky pals, and their aficionados can submit to their lusts during Amsterdam’s Leather Pride in October, they can enjoy themselves on the other side of the world at the Folsom Street Fair on September 27 in San Francisco. The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair, that caps San Francisco’s Leather Pride Week.

Klaas Dijkhoff, the Dutch State Secretary for Asylum, does not offer LGBT asylum seekers from Iran enough protection. COC Netherlands poses this in a response to a letter on this issue from the State Secretary to the Dutch Lower House last July. The COC advocates a policy change. In this letter, Klaas Dijkhoff informs the Lower House that he has no intention of changing the policy for asylum seekers from Iran. This means that he will continue to test each individual story of Iranian gay asylum seekers on an individual basis, and is at liberty to extradite them.