Marina Rice Bader

door Fleur Pierets | sep 25, 2014 | Movies

Marina Rice Bader

Text JF. Pierets Photos Marina Rice Bader

Executive Producer of the lesbian themed movies ‘Elena Undone’ and ‘A Perfect Ending’, Marina Rice Bader, is releasing her feature length directorial debut ‘Anatomy of a Love Seen’ as a streaming rental, breaking outside of and bypassing the traditional Hollywood distribution channels. Bader was set on the idea of exploring alternative distribution options in order to engage and connect directly with her fans, and get the film out to as many people as possible. A conversation about lesbian films, about running her independent film company ‘Soul Kiss Films’ and about love & passion.

When did you start to make movies? Lesbian movies, to be correct.
I’m in the movies since 2009. It hasn’t been really long, but I can say it’s been fantastic. That year I fell in love with a woman for the first time. She happens to be Nicole Conn (film director, producer and screenwriter. The lesbian love story, ‘Claire of the moon’, was her debut feature. Red.) I had never fell in love with a woman before, never even kissed a woman. So, when you are walking into an entirely new world, you do your research by watching movies. I rented so many lesbian movies that I noticed there were some really good ones but also some terrible ones because of the lack of chemistry between the actors. Movies have been my non-human loves my entire life and after we were together for almost a year I said to Nicole; let’s make a movie, just for fun! Since the only story she wanted to tell was ours, we made ‘Elena Undone’, which was literally my story. On the set I did about 20 different things. From executive production to preparing food and shuttle driving, just to name some. I had my hands in all the different departments and fell in love with the process. After that I produced ‘The Perfect Ending’ and when Nicole and I split up a couple of years ago, my love of film didn’t die with the relationship. I just continued on my own with ‘Anatomy of a Love Seen’ and the upcoming ‘Raven’s Touch’.

‘Anatomy of a love seen’ is your directors’ debut. There’s quite a difference between being an executive producer and a director. How does one take such a big step?
I don’t like to call myself a control freak, but I do like to have my hands on everything. And I love storytelling. As a professional photographer I spend 18 years telling stories through still images before I got into this rollercoaster business. Directing this film came as a natural progression and besides that I chose the wardrobe, I did the make-up, chose the location and coached the actors into getting the real emotions. I can actually say it was an easy transition because I have already been doing it for so long on a smaller level.

Why did you make another lesbian themed movie?
Well, I love women. I just do. My female friends have been the most important people in my life, up until my kids. I want to tell women’s stories and since almost all my friends are lesbians and we have so many beautiful, committed fans from ‘Elena Undone’ and from ‘The Perfect Ending’, it just makes so much sense for me to continue telling their story. And also; a good story is a good story. It doesn’t matter who’s making love to whom because they are two human beings. They are not anything other than that. I’m trying to tell universal stories because the one thing that every single person on the planet struggles with and what every single person wants, is the ever-illusive true love.

What do you think about lesbian movies in general?
Some of the most beautiful films I’ve seen are lesbian films but whatever niche you name, there are both good and bad films. Of course we all hope that our film goes beyond the niche, that it tells a good enough story that other people want to watch it. But we are forced to make films on a very small budget. When you’ve got a small percentage of the planet that are going to be organically interested in your film, you can’t spend a lot of money because you don’t know how much you are going to get back. And when you have a low budget it’s easy to reach for the moon when you’re for example doing your casting. You continually have to ask, ask, ask for what you feel you deserve for your film and at a fraction of the price. But once again, that’s just not only in lesbian film. It’s niches across the board. It just happened to be what I’m talking about right now.

What is the one thing you would never settle on?
For me, one of the number one things I was missing in a lot of the films was chemistry between the two leads. When Nicole and I worked together we worked really hard to make sure that we did chemistry reads. Nicole was very adamant about that because it’s critical, it really is. When I cast Charon and Jill in ‘Anatomy of a Love Seen’, I did it because their chemistry was phenomenal. They where incredibly comfortable and they adored each other. When you are tossing two actresses in bed, naked, the very first day of filming, those are important attributes.

You shot the movie in only 5 days. That’s quite a challenge.
The reason for that was that I wanted to maintain the production value that I had on the other films that we’ve done…with about one third of the budget to work with. I had one investor who really is an ally in the world of lesbian cinema, and when I decided I wanted to make this film I called her and asked if she wanted to be involved. When she said she had 75000 dollars to invest, I didn’t want to spend one more minute trying to find other investors. I just wanted to make the movie right away in order to get it submitted for the summer festivals. The only way to keep the production value high was to limit the amount of days we where shooting, which is what I did. I can tell you that every shot that I took to make ‘Anatomy of a love seen’ was very carefully thought about.

And then, well, there was no script.
Indeed. Everything was just an idea in my head. I started working on an outline and did not finish until I casted the actresses. There was something in my brain that was not letting me move forward without knowing who was going to inhabit these roles, which, in a fully improvised film, I think you can probably understand that. So much comes from who is stepping into those roles and when I did the audition process, I didn’t even audition the first time around. I just brought these women in to meet them. You can’t cast someone to far outside the character when it’s improvisation.

So you said: we have five days to shoot, we don’t have a script. And everybody followed? More than that; they where incredible. Everyone who came on this ride with me was so brave and non afraid. It was just the right group of people because they loved the story, loved the idea. The thing that sold them all was that we were going to do this in 5 days, but on only one location. After being on numerous sets, I know how much time is wasted when you’re moving your company to another place where you have to reset the lights and everything else. We, on the other hand, had a soundstage and didn’t have to stop for plains nor trains. I made it as doable as possible. Everyone agreed and of we went. All of us. Into this great adventure.

‘I try to get out of thinking in terms of small. I’m trying to live the rest of my life big.’

When ‘Anatomy of a love seen’ was finished, you chose not to go via traditional distribution.
The thing that bothers me about traditional distribution is that it’s exclusionary. Inherently I find that to be upsetting. With the last two films we went via traditional distribution and the US was able to watch the film months before many of the European countries, because of the way they have it divided in the territories. That doesn’t only feel bad, but it also leads to piracy. I don’t blame people who have to wait for months and trying to find it illegally. But they shouldn’t have to wait. And that’s why I wanted to do it this way. I wanted a worldwide release and I’m happy to say that the movie has been viewed in 90 countries. It was available on the same day to everyone who had access to Internet and at a very reasonable price for a brand-new film. I released it after our world premier at Outfest here in Los Angeles. I just wanted to try something new and it’s been extremely successful. It really makes me happy that everyone has had the same opportunity as everyone else.

Right now the movie is available on only one platform, which is Vimeo.
There are many platforms I could have gotten the film on myself, but I wanted to start with Vimeo because they are so filmmaker friendly and it’s so easy to figure it all out. They offer high quality and are very responsive to questions. It was a great place for me to start and it turned out being tremendously successful. Our statistics within that one platform are phenomenal. Each person who rented it watched it on an average of three times. A full 10% of people who viewed the trailer had actually gone on to rent the movie. We’ve got a lot of interaction. We’ve got comments, we’ve got 4,5 out of 5 stars after a month of being up, so we’re doing very well. The exiting thing however is that I’ve been approached by Gravitas films, a distributor with tremendous projects in their library and they approached me on taking the film to the next level. I’m really excited about that because my one platform is going to be extended to many, many platforms.

Is that kind of distribution a completely new way of communicating?
I really do think this is the way of the future. In 5 years no one is ever going to buy dvd’s anymore. I don’t even think you’re going to find them. The days of having to worry about not going to be able to have a dvd distribution is over and I think, especially for young filmmakers or people who are just getting started, it’s a beautiful thing to have the opportunity to know that they can follow their passion, make their film and having a platform for people to see it. You don’t have to wait anymore for someone to come along and handle your movie.

When hearing about all those people who’ve watched ‘Anatomy of a love seen’, can I assume you’re much appreciated within the lesbian community?
I think I am. But distributing my movie in such a matter was a bit of a risk. I’m not a Josh Whedon, I’m not worldwide news. If I release my film the day after the world premiere, I have to work my butt of to make sure that every single person knows that it’s out there. At the moment I’m doing a little experiment because I’m curious to see how much the lesbian community supports someone who creates projects just for them. I sometimes think it’s something that is taken for granted in a certain way. We all go to the movies, buy dvd’s. But do people think beyond that? Are they conscious about the fact that they are supporting the artist who created this, allowing him or her to go on and create more? Just for them! For 5 dollars any lesbian out there can contribute, in order for me to be able to go on and make the next film. If I were going to be able to send a message to the lesbian community it would be, please please please support the artists who are creating just for you. Weather it’s by renting my movie, or buying a subscription to an LGBT magazine, it doesn’t matter. Just as long as you know that the reason that these entities exist, is for you. They can’t exist without you. So rent the movie!

What would you like to accomplish with your movies?
We’re doing final editing on ‘Raven’s Touch’ as we speak and my desire is to make another film starting the end of the year. My dream is for ‘Soul Kiss Films’ to be synonymous with quality lesbian cinema. I really dedicated the last 3d of my life to bringing women’s stories to the screen and that would make me very happy. I actually would like to create a film a year, would like to be able to bring a new film into the lesbian library every year.

That’s very ambitious since you are running ‘Soul Kiss Films’ all by yourself.
It is, but it’s doable. I try to get out of thinking in terms of small. I’m trying to live the rest of my life big. ‘Soul Kiss Films’ is just me. I don’t have an assistant or secretary, it’s literally just me. It would be easy to think I’m not going to be able to accomplish much this way, but I would rather think in terms of being able to operate in a way that a larger production company would. In terms of what I want my output to be. A company like ‘Focus features’ is not sitting around working on one project at the time. They’re in postproduction on one, pre production on another. They have multiple things going on. So that is the way I’m running my business. At some point I will have some support but right now it’s not in the budget so I’m just trying to make sure that I stay big. Think big. I think that’s the only way to be successful.

www.soulkissfilms.com
www.anatomyofaloveseen.com

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 11.

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Jennifer Nehrbass

door Fleur Pierets | mrt 25, 2013 | Art

Jennifer Nehrbass

Text JF. Pierets Artwork Jennifer Nehrbass

Someone once wrote that she was dismantling the roles and stereotypes of beauty and femininity, examining the psychology that leads women to go to extremes to maintain beauty and style. Needless to say that our brain got tickled so we checked on some of her thoughts.

On habitat.
I love living in New Mexico. It may seem cliché but the light is dramatic and the landscape boundless. The contrasts of people and their culture are always inspiring. We are at the center of the oldest cultures in the USA with the ancestral pueblo people, but we are also the birth place of the atomic bomb. One has the ability to isolate when necessary and engage with culture when inspired to do so.

On technique.
The photorealistic aspect occurs primarily with the figures in the painting. I choose to have them painted this way to represent the physicality of being alive. We can pinch our skin and know we are physically here. The physical aspect to life is tangible. To contradict the tangible I place figures within abstract areas that refer to the thoughts desires, dreams and perceptions of life. The viewing of my work is meant to be a push and pull exercise between these differing painting styles.

On women.
A lot of my older work dealt with the experience of being a woman in contemporary society. They were primarily self- portraits, with homage to Cindy Sherman. Since that is my gender I felt the critique was a more honest. My experiences as a woman are not unique. The more personal I explored the more universal the paintings became. Currently I am working on paintings that incorporate both genders, which I find to be liberating to the process.

‘I try to reexamine how women are portrayed both in current culture and throughout art history.’

On stereotypes.
I try to reexamine how women are portrayed both in current culture and throughout art history. I am interested in expressing what it feels like to be held up to current ideals of beauty. I create narratives that illustrate a woman’s experience using emotions such as humor, fear, or melancholy. What other thoughts, desires or contributions are ignored when one is overwhelmed with one’s one image?

On intimacy.
Painting is very intimate. Every decision is mine alone on what to put into the painting. Every color is mine to mix, every brush stroke is the coordination between my eyes and the canvas.

On inspiration.
We hike through much of New Mexico and Colorado. The landscape always reinvigorates. I find film and music always a inspiring.

On the future.
Dreams: To design the set for an opera production. Plans: keep painting!!

www.jennifernehrbass.com

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 5.

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Sworn Virgins

door Fleur Pierets | mrt 25, 2013 | Portrait Series

Sworn Virgins

Text JF. Pierets Photos Jill Peters

Northern Albanian women, faced with a culture that subjugates females, live and dress as men in order to provide for their families. These sworn virgins took a vow of chastity, wear male clothing and live as men in the patriarchal northern Albanian society. In an ongoing series, photographer Jill Peters has captured the fascination of a tradition dating back hundreds of years.

When and where did you come up with the idea of making this series?
In late 2008 I was reading a book written by Serena Nanda about gender diversity around the world, and came across a chapter about the Sworn Virgins of Albania. I was intrigued by the idea of such a tradition. I knew nothing about them, nor had I ever heard of their existence. The general consensus that they would soon be dying out made me act quickly. I had to meet one and I was determined to photograph at least one. This idea soon expanded to making a documentary film and I put a crew together. We all traveled to Albania in July 2009 and some of these portraits were taken then. I returned again in late 2011 to continue the project.

Was it easy to find these women?
It was not easy to find them. The Sworn Virgins are very proud but extremely private people. The majority live in very small secluded villages not often seen by outsiders. They remain suspicious of foreigners and their trust must be earned over time. Once they accept you however, they are talkative, warm and hospitable, often offering coffee, tea or cigarettes to their guests.

They live as men yet I guess everybody in the village knows they are women – otherwise you would not have found them. Or am I wrong?
The most remarkable aspect of this tradition is that everyone knows they are women. In this culture however, the way one dresses dictates how they are perceived. A woman who cuts her hair short, wears men’s clothes and adopts masculine traits is accepted as a man. Because this practice has a long history and is associated with family honor, inherited wealth and clan survival, the burneshas are well respected and regarded as a benefit to the family. For the most part, villagers in these areas are so accustomed to knowing a Sworn Virgin, or “burnesha”, first hand that they often wonder what all the interest on our part is about.

What do they think of this paradox?
I was drawn to this project because of the paradox of a strident patriarchal society accepting a woman who switches her gender by choice. I want to make it clear if it isn’t already, that this has nothing to do with sexual identity. As westerners we tend to jump at the chance to label someone gay or straight because those seem like the only two options in our culture. The remarkable thing about these women is that they are beyond labels.

‘In this culture however, the way one dresses dictates how they are perceived.’

I read that this decision is more related to gender roles than to sexuality. Nevertheless they have to remain virgins. Why is that?
I believe swearing to remain a virgin for life and thus avoiding any kind of romantic relationship altogether was their only way of circumventing such labels. Regardless of any orientation, they could not be with a man and still be considered a man. Nor could they be with a woman, as that would technically be a homosexual relationship since they were known to be biologically female. Also, the Kanun, which is the tribal code still influencing many in the rural north, states that a woman is only worth half as many bags of grain as a man, but a virgin is equal to the value of a man. I find it sad in the broader scope, as a woman, that this extreme sacrifice was necessary in order for a woman to exercise her free will. Because a woman wears a pair of pants she is “suddenly” deemed capable of inheriting property, driving a car or running a business. It simply amazes me. I think the injustice in that is evident to everyone today.

Some women became burneshas when they did not want to marry the man their family had chosen for them. Again this is a sad reflection on what it meant to be a woman in those times. Once the vow is taken though, it is forever. To go back on a vow would be to disgrace the family and could result in a deadly feud between the two families that could perpetuate generations of honor killings. I was relieved to discover that for the most part, the burneshas did not regret their decision and insist they have led happy lives. Most would make the same choice given the same circumstances. They are pleased with the progress women have made in the past 50 years and understand why it is a custom that is dying out.

You said in an interview that this is an ongoing project. What are your plans?
My future plans for the project include finishing my documentary film. I’m proud to say I have a good relationship with my subjects and have developed a level of trust over the years.

www.jillpetersphotography.com

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 5.

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The Guerrilla Girls

door Fleur Pierets | mrt 25, 2013 | Causes

The Guerrilla Girls

Text Wendy Donckers Photos Courtesy of The Guerrilla Girls

The Guerrilla Girls are a group of anonymous estrogen-bomb dropping, creativily complaining feminists. They fight discrimination and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture with ‘facts, humor and fake fur’. Behind their scary gorilla masks you can find women of all sorts and kinds with pseudonyms of dead female artists. Let’s take a look at the Guerrilla Girls’ deadly weapons.

Facts.
The Guerrilla Girls started off in 1985, after a protest against an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the most influential museum of modern art in the world. The exhibition included only 17 women out of the 165 displayed artists. A bunch of female artists made posters that stated these facts of discrimination and put them up throughout art neighbourhood SoHo. The Guerrilla Girls were born. The group started making statistics of women artists and artists of color in museums, academies and art galeries. They committed themselves to counting, writing letters, and researching museums and galleries. “There’s a popular misconception that the world of High Art is ahead of mass culture. But everything in our research shows that, instead of being avant garde, it’s derriere.”, the Guerrilla Girls stated in an interview on their website. The GG’s even did a ‘weenie count’ in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They came to the conclusion that less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections were women, while 85% of the nudes were female. A new Guerrilla poster was made and showed the back of a naked gorilla-headed woman that lies down and seems to say: “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” A quarter of a century later the same updated poster demonstrates figures that have hardly changed: female artists at the Metropolitan Museum dropped down to 4% and the female nudes became 76%.

Many other posters came up, as well as stickers, a website and fun fact books. The GG’s hung up female named banners over the generally male artist names on European museum façades, invaded the Venice Biennale with giant banners, launched a anti-film industry billboards in Hollywood right before the Oscar Awards, put up an interactive feminist banner outside the city art gallery at the Art Boom festival at Krakow and many more. With their striking statements and provocative appearances the Guerrilla Girls continuously endeavour to undermine the reigning stereotypes in the art world and other areas. “One poster led to another, and we have done more than hundred examining different aspects of sexism and racism in our culture at large, not just the art world.” In their campaigns the ‘girls’ don’t avoid other sensitive subject that are important to them such as abortion rights, the gulf war, racism, queer issues, homelessness and (sexual) violence. “We are a collaborative group, we don’t work in an orchestrated way. Members bring issues and ideas to the group and we try to shape them into effective posters.” 28 years after the start the Guerrilla Girls have become a habitual -and sometimes notorious- presence in exhibitions, film festivals, newspapers, university aula’s, museum bathrooms and on walls and billboards all over the world. “What started out as a lark has become an ongoing responsibility, a mission. We just can’t abandon our masked duty! It’s been a lot of fun, too!”

Humor.
Another main mission of the Guerrilla Girls is to modernize the word ‘feminism’, their own proclaimed ‘f’ word. Although they call themselves ‘girls’ and sometimes wear short skirts and high heels, the Guerrilla Girls consider themselves pure feminists. “By reclaiming the word ‘girl’, it can’t be used against us. Wearing those clothes with a gorilla mask confounds the stereotype of female sexiness.”, one of the members confirms drily. With their –let’s say- remarkable appearance the GG’s hope to shock and provoke the world. “Our situation as women and artists of color in the art world was so pathetic, all we could do was make fun of it. It felt so good to ridicule and belittle a system that excluded us.”

‘Our situation as women and artists of color in the art world was so pathetic, all we could do was make fun of it.’

To the question of how many the Guerrilla Girls are, their answer is that they secretly suspect that all women are born Guerrilla Girls. “It’s just a question of helping them discover it. For sure, thousands; probably, hundreds of thousands; maybe, millions.” Over the years the Guerrilla Girls have become one fluid and crazy but close family off all ages, As they work anonymously they hardly ever accept new members. They rather stimulate their numerous fans all over the world to take them as a roll model and start up their own actions and strategies. And most of all motivate them to complain, complain and complain, but rather in a funny and creative way. To give an idea, they published their Guerrilla Girls’ Art Museum Activity Book, wich is stuffed with funny games, facts and tips like ‘putting up posters and statements in the museum bathrooms’ and ‘dress up and give a do-it-yourself guided tour in your favorite art gallery about the real story behind the displayed art.’ The Guerrilla Girls’ website has several downloadable posters and stickers, like for example the call to drop a new weapon on Washington: the Estrogen Bomb. ‘If dropped on the super-rich trying to take over the country, they would throw down their big guns, hug each other and start to work on human rights.’

Fake fur.
Shortly after their first actions in 1985 and the following press attention, the group members decided to hide their identities when appearing in public. As most of the members are active in the small art world, they prefer to avoid career problems and to bring the focus to the issues, not to the Guerrilla Girls’ personalities. And it seems to help: the mystery surrounding their identities has attracted attention ever since then.The GG’s give themselves names of dead female artists like Frida Kahlo, Eva Hesse, Kathe Kollwitz, Gertrude Stein and Georgia O’Keeffe, in order to reinforce these women’s position in cultural history.The slightly aggressive gorilla masks with sharp teeth were an accidental idea that emerged after a bad speller wrote ‘Gorilla’ instead of ‘Guerrilla.’ The masks immediately became symbol of the Guerrilla Girls’ strength. The good avengers are not afraid to use their loud voice or roll their muscles. But at the end the day, each Guerrilla Girl hangs up her mask and returns anonymously to her daily life. Untill the next mission comes along. And looking at the world today, these kind of missions will still be required for a while. So if you see some Gorilla heads popping up behind the corner of your street, don’t get scared and run away. Just join and play.

www.guerrillagirls.com

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 5.

Read the complete issue here.

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Roze in Blauw

door Fleur Pierets | sep 25, 2012 | Causes

Roze in Blauw

Text JF. Pierets Photos Myriam Missana

There are several networks that focus on specific groups within the Amsterdam police force. One of these networks is ‘Roze in Blauw’ (freely translated as ‘Pink in Blue’). It promotes the interests of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans genders in- and outside of the police force. The members of Roze in Blauw are there for people who need to report discrimination, insult, abuse or theft because of their sexual orientation. They offer a listening ear and can refer or mediate when necessary. Et Alors? Magazine talks to Ellie Lust, spokeswoman of the Amsterdam police and president of Roze in Blauw.

In the beginning
Roze in Blauw started in 1998, the year the gay games came to Amsterdam. The numerous participants arrived from different parts of the world. Parts where homosexuality was a criminal offence, or where the death penalty was still sentenced. We thought about how we, as a police force, could let those people know that they were safe with us. We are talking about people who were locked up in psychiatry for 5 years, just because they were kissing someone of the same sex. One of the stories we were told was that twenty people would be trapped in one room and food was shoved under the door, until one day the door would open and they’d be thrown out without a single word of apology, or an explanation for that matter. Because the police would not usually be on their side, we found it quite important to create a safe haven for them to turn to, as you can imagine. The theme of those years Gay Games bethought Friendship, so we invented a slogan that said ‘Proud To Be Your Friend’. We felt we had to let all the guests know that they were welcome here and that they were safe with us. After the festivities ended, we realized there was a great need for a reporting point where people could tell their stories. We tried a lot of things: from consultation times at the COC to pre-announced hours by phone. It was only when we created a separate Roze in Blauw number that it finally started to work, because when people want to report an insult they don’t want to have to wait until office hours to do so. Yet it took until the Chris Crane incident for them to find their way towards us. The American journalist was molested in 2005, when he and his boyfriend walked on the streets of Amsterdam holding hands. Crane wrote about the assault in The Washington Blade, the gay magazine of which he was the editor in chief. “I hope our gay friends in Holland realize that it’s a bit too soon to declare victory and go home, now that they’ve won their legal battles”, he wrote, referring to same sex marriage being legal in the Netherlands. This incident put everything on a roller coaster and soon we had to submit a press release in which we stated that people, faced with violence or behaviour focused against their sexuality, could contact us via that special phone number. Although we were already there for about 8 years, the media picked it up as ‘Amsterdam Police Founded A Special Team’. Suddenly there was a Roze in Blauw team and they started asking us for advice. East European countries and the police top all over the world invite us to inform them on how we make contact with the community. I sometimes proudly call us ‘world champion’.

Facts and numbers
As from 1997 we effectively started to submit the indictments. What we see is that from ‘97 until now there’s an ascending line in violent incidents and other issues that people encounter; threats, discrimination and so on. In 2007, for example, we counted 234 incidents. Those are incidents in the broadest sense of the word; people who were threatened, both physically and psychologically. People who got eggs thrown against their windows or who got beaten up, all kinds of harassments. In 2008 we counted 300 incidents, 371 in 2009 and 487 in 2010. So we register 1 or 2 incidents per day in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, those numbers remain difficult because we never know if those increasing numbers are a sign of the times or because we’re profiling ourselves at almost each event in order to lower that threshold. Two years ago, Dutch newspaper Het Parool and the local news channel AT5 had a research program and one of the questions was, “Do you call the police when something happens to you?” It turned out that only 9% did. But does that mean that the violence is 11 times as high? As you can see, those numbers stay very objective.

The victims
There are various reasons why people don’t report sexually oriented discrimination. For instance, quite some men meet at gay spots but live a heterosexual life in their everyday reality. They don’t go to the police when they are violated. The shame factor is not to be underestimated, either. When you take a man home from a club and you get beaten up, it’s quite likely that it will flash your mind that people will think it’s your own fault. Women experience a different kind of violence. More often they will encounter sexist comments, such as “surely you never met a real man before” or “can I join?”. There are a lot of cases where women get seriously beaten up but the assault remains mostly verbal. We also experience that women don’t think it’s a big enough deal to go to the police and that’s bad because if they don’t report it, it didn’t happen. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t make a fuss about violence when they are gay or trans and that really ought to change.

‘I dream about ending the Roze in Blauw team, because that would mean that we no longer experience violence against homosexuality.’

The perpetrators
Research to perpetrators of gay violence shows that religion has less of an influence than everybody thinks. Macho behaviour, on the other hand, is a very big problem. Young men of between 15 and 25 years old often can’t stand seeing other men behave in a more female way so they want to teach them a lesson in how to be a real man. Not only coloured people are guilty of such behaviour, the Dutch men are also represented.

The roze in blauw team
When people call our team they talk to someone with the same sexual orientation. That helps a lot when it comes to overcoming shame. In order to make the entire force aware of the problem, we now organize – together with COC Amsterdam – sensitivity training days. Until now it’s been very useful and beautiful. And of course there are moments when things go wrong but it’s quite clear how all policemen and -women think about inequality. Police work in general is about 80% behind closed doors. Most people have no idea because the only thing that’s out in the open is when we write a parking violation ticket. We do a lot of social work and next to our Roze in Blauw team we also have – amongst others – a Turkish, Antillean, Jewish and even a Christian network. You name it, we have it. Every specific force can be deployed in a particular problem. In the end, it’s all about connection. People from the outside can only connect with the police when there is certain recognition. In my opinion every police force in the world should be a reflection of the people in the street. That’s the only way to find each other and that’s the only way we can do our jobs properly.

Here and after
The Roze in Blauw team gives lectures all over the world. It’s a process where we take steps forward and the occasional step back. It’s not always easy and it’s a lot of work because next to being part of Roze in Blauw we are also just normal cops. I’m the spokeswoman of the Amsterdam police and the president of this special network. That makes for pretty long days but I cannot tell you how proud I am. I’ve been part of the police for almost 25 years now and I witness progress every day. Nevertheless, I dream about ending the Roze in Blauw team, because that would mean that we no longer experience violence against homosexuality.

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