About us

Kees van den Berg (1948) was born and raised in Utrecht and has been active on several fronts in the field of LGBTQI+ emancipation since the early 1970s (including COC-Midden Nederland, stand-up gay comedy at Spitsroeden, gay bars, rainbow festival and LGBTIQ+ policy advisor for the municipality of Utrecht). Also due to his efforts, the national pride day (Roze Zaterdag) took place in Utrecht in 2013, the year of the commemoration of the famous Peace of Utrecht in 1713. In recent years he has been active as an ambassador for Roze 50+, which represents the interests of LGBTIQ+ elderly people. In season 2018-2019 he was Mr. Senior Pride Netherlands. He received a royal decoration and was appointed Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2022 for his commitment to LGBTIQ+ emancipation.

Marijke Huisman (1972) is an assistant professor of Public History at Utrecht University. She is interested in emancipatory historiography. She has published ‘Savannah Bay, history of a special bookshop, 1975-2019’, amongst others. She is now working on a queer history of the Netherlands.

Maurice van Lieshout was active in the 1970s and 1980s in the national- and Utrecht department of the COC and employee of queer magazines Sek and Homologie. He took the initiative for the queer history exhibition Goed Verkeerd (Amsterdam Historic Museum 1989) and from 1988 to 1994 he was gay literature studies lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. He has written various articles on the history of homosexuality and is the editor and co-author of a number of books on the subject. He is now working on a book about the first generation of gay activists in our country.

Gianna Mula was born in Sardegna, Italy, where she studied literature before moving to the UK. There she started a literary magazine, worked as a bookseller and completed her MA in Creative Writing and Publishing at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Since 2019 she lives in Utrecht, where she is part of the queer theater company Theater Oester. She manages her personal collection of queer books and publications on www.bibliograficaquir.studio.

Evert van der Veen (1960) is a trailblazer. Active in the LGBTQIA+ community in Utrecht since the 1980s. He started his career as a lecturer/researcher at Gay Studies at Utrecht University and was a policy advisor on queer policies in the municipality of Utrecht. Evert was one of the founders of the MidZomerGracht queer festival, was chairman of the EuroGames Utrecht foundation, COC Midden-Nederland and the municipal LGBTI+ advisory committee. He has written books and articles on a variety of topics, including homosexuality, and developed websites for, among others, the Utrecht Rainbow Alliance 50+. He received a royal decoration and was appointed Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2021 for his commitment to LGBTI+ emancipation.

Fabienne van Wijngaarden (2003) studies History at Utrecht University and is active at the study association UHSK. There she is editor-in-chief of the popular-scientific journal Aanzet. She is also a member of the Youth Council of the municipality of Buren (Jongerenraad Buren). Together with the other members, she won the ‘Kanjer van Buren’ award in 2022.

Lieve van Borssum Waalkes (2000) studied Liberal Arts & Sciences; International Law & Political Science/IR at University College Utrecht. At the end of last year she completed her last semester on exchange at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During her studies she did a board year and was part of creative initiatives such as the UCU Fashion Design Team. Currently, she works at a museum, which fits well with her love for art.