New Dutch government wants to strengthen position of LGBTI people: report

The VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie - the four parties currently negotiating forming a new Dutch government together - want to take several measures to strengthen the position of LGBTI people in the Netherlands, AD reports based on a draft government agreement the newspaper managed to get hold of.

Among other things, the four parties want to minimize "unnecessary gender registration" - an important point for transgender and inter-sexual persons. And they want to supplement Article 1 of the Constitution with a prohibition on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and disability.

The parties also agreed to promote the emancipation of LGBTI people. Their position must be "improved" in education and training. And the parties agreed that attention must be paid to the position of LGBTI and their "sexual and reproductive rights" in foreign policy.

This will come as good news to LGBTI organisations, who worried that the new government will not pay much attention to LGBTI rights. Before the election, Christian parties ChristenUnie and CDA refused to sign a polling agreement by the COC asking for many of these points. The VVD and D66 did sign.

The draft agreement also revealed that the four parties want further research to be done into multiple parenthood - making it possible for a child to legally have more than two parents. For example, with a lesbian couple a child can then have two mothers and a father.

With this addition, the parties seem to want to push the debate on the matter forward as they are divided on the subject, according to AD. The D66 is a great supporter of allowing a child to have more than two parents. The VVD is also for it. But the CDA sees legal problems in doing so. And the ChristenUnie is completely opposed to it. The Christian party argues that the "biological reality" that a child has one mother and one father must not be ignored.

This is the third day in a row that AD reports new content in the draft government agreement. Previous leaks regarded a compromise reached on euthanasia and stem cell research, and the parties wanting to strengthen Dutch norms and values by having schools teach kids the Dutch national anthem.