Stories from Utrecht’s queer history
Sodomites as scapegoats
The sodomite persecution of 1730 marked a turning point because the ‘silent sin’ was no longer hidden from the general public.
From sodomite to homosexual
In the 19th century, not only the police was busy with men having sex with men, a whole procession of experts were looking for explanations for deviant sexual behaviour.
Utrecht victims of 248bis
It is no longer possible to retrieve how many gay men and lesbian women in Utrecht have fallen victim to art. 248bis of the Criminal Code, but it must have been hundreds.
1949-1979 Changing times
Following the example of the church, science and government, most Dutch people in the post-war period regarded homosexuality as a sin, disease or crime.
’The Tragedy of a Human Life’
In the 1963 ‘realistic novel’ Men Who Are ‘Different’, the author uses the 1960s setting of Utrecht to make the story as realistic as possible.
Atalanta
Around 1980, Rymke Wiersma and Weia Reinboud started the Atalanta printing and publishing house in Utrecht. They thus created a platform for spreading “nice philosophy”.