Amsterdam drag queen threatened with firearm

Mayday - one of the Netherlands' most famous drag queens - was threatened with a firearm in Amsterdam early on Friday morning. The police arrested the perpetrator shortly after the incident. "This is really the most intense thing I've ever been through", Mayday told AD. Mayday and two friends went out on Thursday night. They went to Reguliersdwarsstraat in Amsterdam, a street that has a number of clubs for homosexuals. "Once outside two men came at us from nowhere. From a distance one of them looked a little haggard and even aggressive." The haggard looking man approached Mayday and asked for a light for his cigarette. "But as non-smokers we didn't have one." Mayday said. "Then he suddenly flipped. He used threatening language, opened his coat and showed a gun in the waistband of his pants. He shouted 'I can kill you with this'. And he shouted words like 'gay' and 'freak' at me." Mayday and her friends drew back and called the police. The police arrived a short time later and arrested the man. "I do get some negative reactions, but I have learned to live with it. But this time it felt extremely insane and anxious. In the 25 years that I have been dressing like superwoman I have not experienced such a thing." she told the newspaper. Mayday has been advocating in the Netherlands for more acceptance for gays, lesbians, transgenders and transvestites for years. "Gays and drag queens are discriminated against less, but lately there has gain been a negative development. Increasingly we are harassed on the streets. The battle is far from over."