Why freedom is never safe when love is suspect – LGBTQ+ rights under pressure in Slovakia In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico and his coalition want to try to rewrite the constitution. Under the guise of protecting "national identity," they want to establish dual gender rights and require schools to discuss...
The government doesn't need to have a preference for someone's identity. But denying it is not neutrality – it's a choice against recognition. It sounds so civilly phrased: a neutral government as the key to mutual respect. But the argument made by Geert-Jan Edelenbosch (Trouw, June 13) mostly conceals a stubborn...
LGBTIQ+ rights are once again on the political bargaining table The Dutch government has updated its travel advisory for LGBTIQ+ individuals traveling to the United States. It no longer states that laws and values in the U.S. are comparable to those in the Netherlands. On the contrary, the message now is...
The news that Harvard University has renamed its DEI office to the “Office of Community and Campus Life” — as reported by The New York Times — may at first glance seem like a simple restructuring. But anyone who reads between the lines, or simply knows the context, can see:...
Modern discrimination is a system – a kind of name-calling without words. A mosque that, year after year, has to explain where its donation money comes from. A general practitioner who receives questions about payments from foreign patients. A Muslim who has to justify a bank transfer during Ramadan. It’s not a...
Lately, it feels like we’ve collectively landed in an episode of Black Mirror: opinion pieces, news reports, and analyses warning us about an American anti-DEI wave that will inevitably reach our shores. The suggestion? That diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Netherlands and Europe could be thrown out the window...
Five years ago, after the murder of George Floyd, companies tripped over each other to declare their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). “We’re becoming an anti-racist company!” shouted Uber.“We’re tackling structural inequality!” promised Best Buy. Fast forward to 2025, and what do we see? Those same companies are now hastily...
Recently, the Algemeen Dagblad published an interview with me, conducted by Edwin van der Aa, about the erratic course that some American companies are taking with regard to diversity. Where brands such as McDonald’s and Harley-Davidson in the US are scaling back their DEI ambitions, we are seeing a growing...
