Amsterdam refused to appoint gay officials in 1950s; interest group demands investigation

Between 1950 and 1958 Amsterdam rejected 225 applicants because of their homosexuality, Trouw reports based on lists from the Dutch capital's archive. Gay interest group COC wants a new investigation into how the government treated gay people, a spokesperson said to Het Parool.

These lists from the Assessment Committee on Moral Behavior of Municipal Personnel were discovered accidentally last year, and then immediately locked away because many of the citizens on them are still alive, according to Trouw. The committee carried out background checks on the people who wanted to work for the municipality.

The lists contain the names and backgrounds of over 1,500 applicants. 225 of them were rejected because the checkers suspected they were gay, or even because they had a gay friend, family member or acquaintance, according to the newspaper.

In the past there have been investigations into the persecution of gay people in the Second World War, but not into their situation in the years thereafter, a spokesperson for COC pointed out to Het Parool. The COC wants the national government to find out whether other municipalities also kept such "gay lists" and whether the victims who are still alive want any form of redress.