2015: David Bos, “Equal Rites Before the Law: Religious Celebrations of Same-Sex Relationships in the Netherlands, 1967-1970”

April 8, 2015

David Bos, “Equal Rites Before the Law: Religious Celebrations of Same-Sex Relationships in the Netherlands, 1967-1970”

Amsterdam Mosse Lecture
https://mosselectures.wisc.edu/amsterdam/

Wednesday, 8 April 2015, 10:30-12:00 CST

Oudemanhuispoort 4-6
1012 CN
Amsterdam

Sponsored by:
Stichting George Mosse Fonds
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Global Mosse Lecture Series

Lecture Description: The legalization of same-sex marriage is commonly depicted as an achievement of LGBTQ+ emancipation and of secularization. The fact that the Netherlands were the first country to open up civil marriage for same-sex couples is explained from the marginalization of churches, and from the 1994 defeat of the Christian Democratic party. However, precisely this party had been the first to propose the legal recognition of “alternative relationships” in the 1980s—which was then laughed off by the LGB-movement and the political Left. What is more, in the 1960s and 1970s already religious solemnizations of same-sex relationships occurred in Catholic and mainline-Protestant churches. In this lecture, three spectacular, highly publicized cases will be discussed. It will be argued that religious institutions and traditions have not only posed an obstacle to non-heterosexual men and women, but offered them a repertoire of symbolic expression and contestation.

Lecture Series Description: The annual Mosse lecture is an initiative of the George L. Mosse Fonds to promote the study of gay/lesbian history at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). It is organized in collaboration with IHLIA LGBTI Heritage. Mosse Lectures have been given by Hafid Bouazza, Marjan Sax, Ruud Douma aka Dolly Bellefleur, Bas Heijne, Maaike Meijer, Gerardjan Rijnders, Gerrit Komrij, Gloria Wekker, Stephan Sanders, M. Februari, Ted van Lieshout, Jet Bussemaker, Mohammed Benzakour, Hedy d’Ancona, Simon(e) van Saarloos, Gert Hekma, Karin Spaink, Joke Swiebel, and David Weissman.

david-bos — **David Bos** holds a Master’s degree in theology (Groningen, 1990) and a PhD in sociology (University of Amsterdam, 1999). He worked as the editor-in-chief of the Netherlands leading mental health monthly (MGv), and as an assistant professor in Utrecht University’s Department of Religious Studies. In addition, as a postdoc, he did research on the social acceptance of homosexuality in the Netherlands. At present, he is a lecturer in sociology at University of Amsterdam and a postdoc at the Amsterdam Center for the Study of Lived Religion (VU), involved in a research project on “the oppositional pairing of religion and homosexuality in contemporary public discourse in the Netherlands.