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Keklik Yücel was one of the politicians on the PvdA boat at the Amsterdam Gay Pride Parade 2013 (Partij van de Arbeid/Wikimedia Commons)
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Keklik Yücel was one of the politicians on the PvdA boat at the Amsterdam Gay Pride Parade 2013 (Partij van de Arbeid/Wikimedia Commons)
Thursday, 30 April 2015 - 17:44
Amsterdam: Sexual diversity outreach must be better
Amsterdam presented a new initiative to improve the quality of life for sexually diverse people in the city on Thursday. The project, called Roze Agenda or Pink Agenda, is mainly aimed at increasing the feeling of security and welcome for gay people in Amsterdam.
“The project endeavors to strengthen the position of LGBT,” Simone Kukenheim, alderman for diversity, said. “We are reaching out to all authorities to do their little bit to increase acceptance of LGBT people in the city.”
One of the main focuses of the project is in targeting youth education. Roze Agenda aims at calibrating normality standards for parents and students, and providing teachers with necessary training to focus on sexual diversity. The municipality stressed that every school would have to manage the issue on their own campuses.
The municipality is also launching the so-called “Pink safety box," a project where LGBT Amsterdammers will be able to ask questions concerning security and acceptance. One of the aims is to increase the willingness to report abuses to the police.
As the number of gay elderly in Amsterdam increases, the problem of their isolation is becoming more prominent. They are more prompt to isolation and depression than heterosexual individuals, according to the municipality. Roze Agenda entails using district care teams to be more responsive to needs of homosexual elderly.
Roze Agenda is a visionary document drafted with input from 150 LGBT organizations.