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Me

Sources

Johnson, Lucas. Personal interview. July 27, 2016

margaretkilljoy. The Vrankrijk. April 13, 2011.  Amsterdam.  http://www.flickriver.com/photos/margaretkilljoy/5616077191/

“SOHO” Travel Gay Europe.          http://www.travelgayeurope.com/venue/soho/

“Taboo Gay Bar” Tripadvisor.      https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g188590-d6825386-Reviews-Taboo_Gay_Bar-Amsterdam_North_Holland_Province.html

“Vivelavie” Top 3.Amsterdam.  http://www.top3.amsterdam/travelguide/Amsterdam/Nightlife+%26+Terraces/Vivelavie+

My time in Amsterdam was some of the best weeks of my college career. It was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. However, as a queer woman of color I was not impressed. There was almost no space meant for me. LGBTQ+ spaces/events that I went to were usually dominated by queer men. There were a few places that had a decent number of POC which was refreshing but those same places were meant for queer men. 

If you are a queer man of color you will have no trouble finding a bar that contains people that also identify as such. SOHO and Taboo are only two along a line of gay bars for you to choose from. 

If you are a queer woman of color you will not have such luck. If you are looking for a co-ed bar that has a relatively small presence of POC, Vrankrijk is the perfect space for you. If you want to only be around women, many of which are POC, I couldn’t recommend Vivelavie enough (always go there). If those two options do not satisfy you than I hope you have a gay friend or two to escort you to the nearest gay bar. You will be in the same space as many POC (depending on the bar) though you may not be fully accepted there due to it being a gay bar.

My initial goal with this project was to find queer places that I would feel represented in as a POC. With every new place that I went to I realized that I cared less and less about how racially diverse bars were. I needed more than just POC. I needed women. More specifically I needed queer women; preferably queer women of color.

I attempted to separate my identities in order to find somewhere that catered to only one of them. This left me unsatisfied because though I did find places filled with individuals that looked like me I was hardly ever around women. I’m pansexual so it doesn’t matter what the gender is of the person before me, what matters to me is who they are on the inside. However, after discussing feminism on a daily basis I wanted to be around more queer women instead of searching for an insightful person that may or may not understand my way of thinking in a room full of men.

The LGBTQ+ scene in Amsterdam is very white and very male. Not much different than any other space that I find myself in. If anyone tells you otherwise you should ask them what makes Amsterdam so different than any other place in the world. So I am sorry queer women of color, Amserdam isn’t really the place for you though you will find a few nice places to drink and dance.

If I had more time in Amsterdam I would have loved to speak with more women at Vivelavie to find out other places both within and outside of the city that they would recommend for lesbians. This is not something that I want to give up. If given the chance I will go back to Amsterdam and continue this research because it is truly important to me.

To Be Continued...

Event: EuroPride Canal Pride

My Personal Rating: 3 out of 5

I took a few short videos of some of the floats that made up Canal Pride which I will post after this. Out of all of them, this float does the best job of describing how I viewed the event. A huge banner that reads, “Building Diversity” while the boat is filled mostly by what appears to be white people.

The theme of this year’s EuroPride was “Join Our Freedom.” I found out about the theme while in class. My response of course was to laugh and ask the most important question, “Whose freedom?” EuroPride is a huge LGBTQ+ pride event that thousands of people attend. A theme like “Join Our Freedom” sends a message that I am not sure we can claim right now. How are they defining freedom? Which people in the LGBTQ+ community actually have this freedom? Is this stating the queer (U.S. definition) people in Europe are free? What exactly are they free from? Is everything smooth sailing from here? Those are just a few of the questions that I would love to ask the people that decided on this year’s theme.

When entering any LGBTQ+ space I am always on the lookout for POC. Too many times I have found myself with other queer people but most, if not all, of them are white. I didn’t expect a LGBTQ+ pride parade held in Europe to be mostly POC but I did want to see a decent number of floats/boats that held more than just white people. Seeing the “Building Diversity” float was like a slap in the face. How can you claim to be building diversity if on the same float you have maybe one POC for every twelve white people on board? Claiming that you are actively working on creating a diverse environment only makes me want to assess how well you are implementing that diversity. What I saw was floats with hardly any POC. The ones that had many POC were usually exclusively POC. There were also floats where POC were only seen as dancers or standing on top of small stages as if they were a part of the decorations. 

If I had stumbled upon Canal Pride and had no previous knowledge about it I would have loved it. I loved watching the performances on many of the boats. I loved singing along with the music. The themes and decorations on the boats were absolutely amazing. It was truly a beautiful event. One in which I am lucky to be able to say that I’ve witnessed in person.

But when you claim to be inviting people to join your freedom and I see mostly white people both on the boats as well as along the canal, I have a problem. When you claim to be building diversity but I only see about three or four POC among you (and no people with apparent disabilities), I have a problem. This was supposed to be a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. I understand that some people may argue that there is no real LGBTQ+ community; which I acknowledge and can relate to. I should have felt represented in this celebration. Instead I felt as if I was looking in on someone else’s festivities. I just so happened to witness a parade on the canal. I do not feel free. I can give you a list of people that I know (which consists of just about every queer and trans person that I am close to) that are not free. They are oppressed because of who they are and/or who they are attracted to. I can not be a part of something that tells others to join this freedom because I do not possess it myself. 

In my honest opinion, EuroPride is a bit ahead of itself. The LGBTQ+ community has come a long way which I never want to overlook. But I can’t even imagine what freedom really looks like because I’m too busy trying to gain/maintain basic human rights. We do not have freedom. We have been tolerated both socially and mildly politically.

It was a cute parade though. 

Name: Vivelavie

Type of bar: Lesbian Bar

My Personal Rating: 10 out of 5 stars (This rating is obviously for queer women. Do not come here if you are straight or male)

How I found out about this place: Google “lesbian bar in Amsterdam” and it’s one of the only places that pops up

*Before I go into detail about this club let me speak about something that some of you may have noticed. When rating this club I made sure to state the types of people that should not seek this place out because of the type of place that this is. This is a lesbian club. Ladies that are looking for ladies. Men have absolutely no reason to be here. Straight girls do not need to be here but I understand that a lesbian bar is a more comfortable place to party than a straight bar.

I have talked about how my female friends and I have gone to gay bars either intentionally or not. Either way we did not leave once we realized what kind of space we were in. I do not want, nor do I like, partying at gay bars. Some nights I go out bar hoping to hook-up with someone and that isn’t likely to happen at a gay bar. The reason that I continued to end up at gay bars while I was in Amsterdam is because there are so many! So many times while looking for queer spaces I only found gay bars. It can be very frustrating. But I finally found Vivelavia. A cute, small lesbian space. A place filled with ladies that were looking for ladies. When my two friends and I finally went there and waited in line to get in we were pissed off by the number of guys ahead of us. We had been looking forward to coming here for the past week. Being around queer women is all that I wanted and I couldn’t get in because a group of guys were going in before me. This was one of the only lesbian bars in Amsterdam! And men were taking up our space! We passed at least four gay bars and at least three straight ones to get to this place so it isn’t like they didn’t have anywhere else to go. They made a choice to come to one of the only two lesbian bars. If we as women that love women only have limited space shouldn’t we be entitled to that space? When looking for LGBTQ+ spaces I kept running into gay spaces. I just wanted a night out in one of the only lesbian clubs in Amsterdam so that I could only be around women and I couldn’t even get that*

My two friends and I went to Vivelavie on Saturday during EuroPride! It was going to be my last night out partying in Amsterdam so I absolutely had to spend it surrounded by queer (U.S. definition) women. I am not sure if the bar was packed because of EuroPride but we stood in line for roughly 45 minutes before we got inside. Once we were in we went straight to the bar as we usually do and ordered a couple of vodka tonics which cost about 5 euro each. This was honestly my first time in a lesbian bar. I can never find lesbian spaces because even in the U.S. the are very rare and usually catered towards older lesbians. I believe that there are maybe one or two lesbian bars close to my college town, if that.

Since I had never been to a lesbian club before, I didn’t know how to act or what to do. I stood there awkwardly chatting with one of my friends until a girl walked over to me and started dancing in front of me. She said, “Hi, I don’t know how to do this so I’m just going to awkwardly dance with you.” I must say that was the best possible pick-up line because I instantly laughed and started dancing with her. About a minute later I look over and saw an African woman looking at me as if I was her next meal (ummm, yum!). She politely asked to dance with me. When I agreed she turned to the girl that I was currently dancing with and apologized. Something that I would have never seen if I was at a straight club. I was so into dancing with this beautiful, African women that I forgot to observe the space that I was in for at least 30 minutes. I eventually got away and took a lap around the relatively small room that made up the bar.

I couldn’t possibly tell you how racially diverse Vivelavie was since things were so crowded and also individuals were constantly going in and out of the bar. On the plus side I can tell you that this is a wonderful place for queer women of color. The initial person that came up to me along with one other girl were white. Aside from those two every other woman that approached me was a woman of color. I have nothing against white woman but there is just something about a woman of color flirting with me that feels great. It may have something to do with my fear of ending up with a white woman that believes in white feminism. In that same mindset I believe that a queer woman of color will understand me more since we share so many marginalized identities. Although I know that this doesn’t mean that we will think alike or have the same outlook on life.

Earlier that night I was at a straight bar. The way that men where looking at and approaching me made me feel like a piece of meat. They would stare me down from across that room. Not looking away even when I shot disapproving looks their way. The guys would stand by my group of friends and inch closer to us every few seconds until they were right behind one of us. At Vivelavie I never felt uncomfortable or as if I was someone’s prey. Everyone kindly asked if they could dance with me. I was asked whether or not I felt comfortable kissing someone. Women would set their belongings down to go dance and their stuff would still be there when they returned. When I wasn’t dancing with someone I was talking to random girls about whatever came to mind. This bar creates such a positive space that I regret waiting so long to visit. As a queer woman of color I was treated with the utmost respect. For a few hours I forgot that I was an American student simply visiting Amsterdam. I forgot everything outside of those doors and enjoyed being admired by so many beautiful women.

Vivelavie is an absolute MUST if you are a queer women of color in Amsterdam looking for a fun night. There is no cover charge, the drinks aren’t pricey, the music was amazing, and did I mention all the beautiful queer women? This was the best bar that I visited the entire month that I was in Amsterdam. 

Name: Taboo

Type of bar: Gay bar

My Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

How I found out about this place: I googled “gay bars in Amsterdam” and this was one of the top places that popped up

I went to Taboo with a couple of my female friends one night while we were bar hopping. We prefer to go to LGBTQ+ spaces because we are all queer and heterosexual spaces make us feel extremely uncomfortable. Most of the reviews on TripAdvisor (many of which were written by men) praised this place as a great spot for drinks, hanging out with friends, and making new friends as well. So of course I wanted to check it out.

Like many places in Amsterdam, Taboo does not have a lot of space so things were kinda crowded. I had to literally squeeze myself through people to even get in the building. The crowd spilled out of the bar onto the streets and seemed to merge with the crowds from surrounding gay bars. All of this was going on during EuroPride which partially explains how packed things were but I visited this area a couple of weeks prior to this night and things were almost exactly as packed.

I was used to being in spaces that seemed to be dominated by white men so I was expecting nothing better from Taboo. However, I was pleasantly surprised! Before even making it to the entrance of Taboo I noticed how racially diverse the space was. I didn’t bother to ask people’s ethnicity but I was around so much brown skin that I felt at home. Everyone was extremely kind and friendly towards my friends and I as we slid between groups of people enjoying each other’s company. I noticed other women (or people that I assumed to be women) sitting at the bar, chatting with each other as well as the men around them. The speakers blasted what seemed to be the top pop songs of the week which made me what to dance. Sadly, there was not much room for any serious dance moves. 

We climbed the stairs to the balcony overlooking the entire bar so that I could get a better view of everyone. I had grown accustomed to seeing blonde hair and pale skin wherever I went. As I looked down on all the people dancing and laughing it was so relieving to see curly black and brown hair, afros, and so much melanin that I didn’t want to leave. The best part was that even though this was a gay bar I was not singled out in any way for being a woman. No dirty looks. Nobody pushing me as a form of intimidation. Nobody asking me what I was doing there (which happened to a couple of my female friends when they went to a queer event and gay men read them as heterosexual).

Unfortunately, I stayed less than half an hour because I really wanted to get some rest before class in the morning. I had especially strange feeling about Taboo because it is located directly across the street from SOHO. If you read my previous post than you know how I feel about SOHO. It amazes me that two gay clubs that are less than 50 feet away from each other can be such polar opposites. At SOHO, I saw my race reflected in the people around me but I was treated poorly because of my gender. At Taboo, I was 100% comfortable and felt as if the people around me didn’t see anything wrong with me. It didn’t matter that I was a queer black woman because this space was meant for queer (by the U.S. definition) and trans people in general. If you plan on coming here be prepared to make your way through a crowd if you want to stop by the bar or the dance floor. QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR FRIENDLY! Bring some friends, meet some friends. Either way I am sure that you will love it.

Name: SOHO

Type of Bar: Gay bar

My Ratings: 5 out  of 5 stars (if you are gay), 0 out of 5 stars (for queer women/women in general)

How I found out about this place: My queer, guy friend found this place so I tagged along

I want to start off by saying that I was not aware that this was a gay club and therefore was not a space meant for me, a queer woman. I was bar hopping with friends when one of them spotted this place and we all decided to see how it was. On the night that we went SOHO it was packed. There were so many people that the crowd went right out the door and flooded the street in front of the building. 

When we finally made our way inside I could instantly tell that it was a gay bar. There were super hot, buff guys behind the bar, rainbows everywhere, and I basically had to go on a hunt to find another lady. I didn’t mind it though because I mistakenly read this gay space as a queer space which included me. The fact that I was surrounded by so much brown skin also made me feel as if I belonged. But that was short lived.

We made our way to the bar because that’s how we started every night at a new bar/club. We didn’t get the bartenders attention very easily seeing as we were a group of five girls and only one guy at a gay bar. All of a sudden I got a weird feeling on the back of my neck. The feeling that you get when you know that someone is staring at you. I tried my best to be sneaky and look behind me so that I could catch whoever it was in the act. What I saw was three men, one Black man and two Hispanic men, pointing at my female friends and I. They would point, whisper to each, exchange disgusted looks, and then laugh. One of them caught me looking. He stared right into my eyes as he leaned towards his friend and continued to point and whisper. I wanted to ignore them but I couldn’t get over the fact that three grown men were glaring at a group of young girls the way that they were.

While waiting for one of the hot, buff guys tending bar to notice me a guy crept up behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist. Assuming that it was a gay man trying to get my attention, I slowly turned around and greeted him while kindly guiding his hand off of me. The Black man before me started to flirt and I immediately froze up. This was the last place that I expected to receive that kind of male attention so I was not prepared. One of the girls that I came with noticed how uncomfortable I was with this guy talking to me so she put her arms around me and informed that guy that we we together. He apologized and disappeared into the crowd. 

We eventually got our drinks and went up the stairs to the next floor. There I saw even more brown skin and a few ladies. I was so happy! A few of my female friends hit it off with a couple of ladies and went to spend time with them. I was interested in one of the girls that came to the club with me so she and I found a spot off of the dance floor to chat and dance. Our guy friend was with us and was doing a great job of keeping us company. 

Someone came over to tell Andrew (my guy friend) that their friend saw Andrew, thought he was really cute, and wanted to dance with him. This gave Andrew a creepy feeling because now he knew that somewhere in that big crowd someone was watching him but wasn’t brave enough to greet him themselves. 

I must admit that the music that was playing throughout the night was amazing. I was still feeling kind of uncomfortable and wanted to leave. My gal pals (I can’t believe I actually put that) agreed that we would leave if the next song that played wasn’t a good one. An hour and a half later we were still there. Eventually enough was enough and we decided to leave. After gathering everyone we came with we began walking to the exit with hands held so that we wouldn’t lose anyone (though we did lose a few people while exiting). As one last “fuck you ladies” a gentleman, and I use that term very loosely, put his hands in each of our faces and waved them around as we walked past him. I turned around to yell at him but my friends guided me down the stairs before I got the chance to confront him.

If you are gay, this is a wonderful place for you. If you are a gay person of color I couldn’t recommend this club enough!! But I would warn women not to go here unless you don’t mind gay men occasionally treating you like crap that doesn’t belong. Because we simply do not belong in that space. I went searching for a place for POC and SOHO was one of the only places that actually gave me a population that was a majority POC. Sadly, it was a man space. Which leads me to wonder where the queer women of color go since all I can really find are gay bars/clubs.

Event: Opening event for EuroPride

Location: Dam Square, Amsterdam

My Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I had been waiting for this moment since I learned that my study aboard program would be in Amsterdam during EuroPride. I couldn’t get to Dam Square fast enough on the night of the opening ceremony! As we walked there I noticed people with their rainbows walking around happy and proud. I shouldn’t say that we walked there because that makes it sound as if we casually strolled there when in fact we were so excited that we practically skipped/ran there.

There were so many people at this event that I couldn’t possibly tell you how racially diverse things were. I can tell you that I saw more POC on the way to the event than I did inside of the closed off area. There was a huge stage where all of the performances were going on. My friends and I wanted to be front and center so that we wouldn’t miss a single thing on stage. So we (politely) pushed past people in order to get closer. We were successful! We spent the entire event so close to the stage that the only thing that separated us from the stage was a small gate and a few security guards.

As I mentioned before, as we were coming towards the event I noticed a lot of POC. However, as we made our way towards the front of the crowd I noticed fewer and fewer POC. I am completely certain that there were lots of POC at this event though. With hundreds of people attending it would be almost impossible for it to not be diverse unless someone was actively trying to do that. But it was very apparent who felt entitled to the space. 

I know for a fact that the people in front were not there because they showed up early to get good spots. My friends and I showed up hours after the event began and ended up in amazing spots. We fought for our spots. Squeezing past people, standing our ground so that others couldn’t get in front of us, and holding on to each other for dear life so that nobody would be left behind. I saw a few other small groups of people do this so I know we were not the only ones.

Our journey to the head of the pack started when two of my White friends started slowly sliding past people. Before you knew it, we were a train of mostly queer folks trying to get the best possible spots. If my friends didn’t do that I would have found a decent place within a strained-eye view of the stage to enjoy the night. That may have something to do with my reserved personality and my almost painful willingness to settle for whatever I can get. It may also have something to do with me not wanting to push past people to get ahead because I felt as if it really wasn’t my place to do so. I didn’t feel entitled to a better spot so I wouldn’t have gone for it. My friends wanted a better spot, felt as if they should get those spots, and got them.

With that in mind I can only assume that the lack of POC in the areas closer to the stage was due to white people possibly getting there early, the ones that didn’t had simply forced their way to the front, and POC taking whatever easily available spots they could find. Leading me to believe that non-POC felt entitled to the “good spots” in a LGBTQ+ space. This is reflective of society as a whole. While POC are told to be grateful for what we have and not make too much of a commotion, White people are told to keep going until they have the best of the best. Even in queer spaces.

I did not have a good time at this event. Since we were in a very desired area I had to deal with a lot of pushing and having stranger’s bodies constantly pressed against mine since there were was not enough room for personal space. I was completely sober so I got tired of the music rather quickly. Everything sounded the same and I eventually figured out the pattern of when they would set off fireworks and shoot confetti. Though I did appreciate seeing POC on stage as performers as well as backup dancers, I did not enjoy dealing with other people in the crowd

Name: Kiss Bang Affiar at ClubNL

Type of bar: Unofficial opening party for Europride

My Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

How I found out about this place: Friends sent me a Facebook invite for it

Even though they labeled this the unofficial opening to EuroPride I still wanted to go because ClubNL’s goal was to attract individuals interested in EuroPride and I thought that this would provide the atmosphere of an actual EuroPride event but on a smaller scale. The individuals in the first picture are my amazing friends that also wanted to party at a Pride event before they actually started. In fact, most of my classmates were also there that night!

I had a great time while I was there. There is a small stage with a pole in the middle of it. A few of my classmates and I took turns on it since it was one of those self-spinning poles and we all wanted to twirl on a pole at least once in our lives. The music was great and the DJ that came a little later on in the night was even better. We danced the night away! However, if you enjoy drinking as you party I have to warn you that the prices here are pretty steep. For a vodka and tonic we paid about 8 euro so I can’t imagine how much some of the fancier cocktails cost.

My friends and I got to CLubNL pretty early. The club was far from full so I easily noticed that there were not many people of color. As the night went on more people showed up and the club was eventually crowded. I couldn’t see much racial diversity at first because I was only dancing with my friends. I eventually made my way to the bathroom where I waited in line with a few women of color. We entertained each other so that we wouldn’t pee our pants while waiting for an open stall. 

As I was walking back to the cluster that was my friends I got the chance to look at the people I was sharing a space with. Most people came in groups. From what I could tell there weren’t many individuals that came by themselves aside from the people sitting on bar stools all night. When I noticed POC they were either in a small group together partying in their own space. Or they were one of two or three POC in a group of White appearing people. You can see this in the second and third picture. Those pictures were taken throughout the night to document the amazing time that everyone was having at this event. 

Though there was some racial diversity in this space I wouldn’t say that this was a place for QPOC. As I mentioned, I only saw groups of people of color or what I consider to be token POC within groups of non-POC. That is not a space that feels like it is meant for me. In the case of token POC it feels as if that person had to be escorted into the white-dominated space that was the Kiss Bang Affair. It’s almost like only wanting to visit a foreign area if you are with a tour guide from that area. It is true that you are sharing the space with others but there is a clear unspoken distinction between those that know the area so are allowed to engage with it and you who are merely an observer. Tokens typically stay with their groups while others are free to venture out and intermingle.

I am all for POC creating spaces for themselves when others will not. However, in this case I am not sure how to feel. I noticed a group of POC next to my group of friends. I love that they came to this club together and formed a small circle as if they were making their own club within the club. They kept their backs to everyone else and focused on each other for most of the night. It felt so refreshing to see a group of Black people having such a great time. But this didn’t make the space feel any more welcoming to me. Yes, there was a small group of POC less that ten feet away from me. Yes, I could have walked over there and tried to join in on the fun. But looking from the outside inward it honestly did look like they made a small party within the party. They weren’t engaging in the space. They were merely taking up space which can be extremely empowering in most spaces but I felt as if it wasn’t doing anything here. Whenever I looked at that group I felt as if I belonged somewhere. When I looked in any other direction I wasn’t sure if I belonged or not. 

ClubNL is not usually a LGBTQ+ space from what I can tell. If you are looking for an average fun night, I would recommend it. If you are LGB and want a fun night out, I would recommend this place. I you are a QTPOC, I would look into the events going on the night you want to go before you decide. Or find a better bar because this isn’t really for you.

Lucas on queer spaces in Amsterdam

While I was visiting Vrankrijk I meet Lucas. I made it known that I was looking for queer bars/clubs that would have a decent crowd of POC. The response that I most often recieved was “Ummmm” followed by people explaining that they couldn’t think of any place because they don’t go out much. Eventually I was told that Lucas was the person to talk to because they go out all the time. In less than a week I was able to arranged a meeting at Vrankrijk’s WTF Wednesday. We exchanged pleasantries then got to business. 

I didn’t know much about Amsterdam’s queer nightlife and didn’t want to rely solely on the internet to find places so I was looking for personal recommendations. When I asked for queer bars/clubs Lucas immediately named a place that I should check out. However, when I asked for places for QPOC Lucas didn’t seem to be sure of where to direct me. 

Compared to its population of white Europeans, Amsterdam’s population of POC is rather small. Within that small group of POC we have an even smaller amount of people that engage in Amsterdam’s LGBTQ+ night scene. Lucas warned me that though the queer spaces that I may find myself in do not have a very racially diverse appearance, this is representative of Amsterdam itself.

You would think that because their community is so small that POC and especially QPOC would be more willing to unite in solidarity. Lucas assured me that there is solidarity among Blacks/Africans in particular, but there is still a divide between nationalities; especially along the line of queerness. Many groups of people are not accepting of others queer identity so it makes sense that even some racial groups would be less likely to fully engage in an openly queer life especially when those LGB people around you are vastly White. It is hard to immerse yourself in a community that you do not see yourself reflected in it at all. 

Growing up as a Black person in the United States I have never been concerned with nationality. If you are Black, you’re Black. We don’t really have a native land that we can refer to because we have been so distanced from our African identity while at the same time never being fully integrated into U.S. society. I was often asked where I was from and which part of Africa my family came from. This made me happy that someone would ask such an important question and sad that I didn’t have an answer.

Lucas told me that cisgender men dominate spaces in Amsterdam. Both within as well as outside of the queer community. This is something that I noticed more and more the longer I was in Amsterdam. I noticed because I expected Amsterdam’s society to be structured differently than the U.S, when it came to the individuals that are allowed to take up more space. People brag about how queer-friendly Amsterdam is so I assumed that I would see more queerness in my everyday life. Like home, there is a lot of white, cis men and what I assumed where heterosexual couples walking around together. You can see this male dominance in the type of clubs/bars that are considered LGBTQ+. Lucas named one queer bar, one lesbian bar, and at least half a dozen gay bars. 

Lucas told me that many LGB spaces are not trans-friendly. You will most often find trans people in queer spaces because they tend to be the most accepting and open-minded according to Lucas. Making them the safest spaces for a trans person to be. My friends and I were harassed because we were seen as heterosexual females taking up space meant for LGB people and nobody did anything about it when we went to some smaller Europride events. I felt safe in places like Vrankrijk where I knew that if anyone tried to harm me they would be thrown out and I would be consoled.

Name: Vrankrijk

Type of bar: Hosts “WTF Queer Night” every Wednesday from 10pm until 1am

My Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

How I found out about this place: My professors recommended that my classmates and I attend

I had only been in Amsterdam for a little over two weeks when I finally visited Vrankrijk. As I have mentioned before, I was in Amsterdam in order to take classes at the University of Amsterdam during the summer of 2016. We were studying sexual politics during our second week. We had a new speaker come in every day to talk to us and on this particular day we were hearing from Mijke van der Drift. After giving an amazing lecture about what being transsexual, transgender, and trans means Mijke invited us to the Vrankrijk since she would be bar tending for Queer Night. I of course was super excited to be invited to a queer event by a local!

A group of my friends and I headed to Vrankrijk that same night for Queer Night. We paid about 3 euro to get in (I do not recall if there was a cover or if we simply made a donation). It was a relatively small space but was spacious enough to have a bar, a couple of couches, a Foosball table, and a small stage in what appeared to be an adjacent room to the bar area. Walking in this space felt like home.

Up until this point I had mostly been around white Europeans on a constant basis. Everyone dressed alike in a mainstream, cute kinda way when I people watched around town but at the Vrankrijk nobody seemed to be dressed alike. Everyone had their own style and there were so many super cute, short haircuts that my head seemed to spin from all the beauty around me.

Drinks were pretty cheap there, with wine and beer costing about 2 euro, so I had a couple of drinks to relax. This was my first time in this space so I was very anxious. I talked to my friends and professors until most of them left. Then I started to mingle with the crowd which is when I noticed the type of space that I was in. I was so excited to be in a queer space that I didn’t even think to check if there were any QPOC (queer people of color) around other than myself. Sadly, there were not many.

I looked at the faces around me and noticed that many of them were white. I saw a group of about four POC (people/person of color) that came there together, sitting on a couch in the corner. If I saw a POC they were in a group of white people and seemed to be the token symbol of diversity. Even in the group of friends that I was standing with I was always one of the only two people of color when we went out. POC did not talk to each other unless they came together (from what I observed) and it really upset me.

I came to Vrankrijk the following week for Queer Night with four of my friends. Once again I was one of the only POC in the group. I bought myself a 2 euro glass of wine and met up with a few QPOC that I had met the previous week. Those people introduced me to some of their other queer friends of color. I will speak more about those conversations in my next post.

As I was walking away from my new, queer friends of color and heading to my original group of friends a person tapped me on my shoulder. I turned to see an Asian girl smiling at me and introducing herself. She asked where I was from, how long I was in Amsterdam, and how have I been spending my time. I politely answered but secretly assumed that she was trying to hit on me. She leaned in closer so that I would be sure to hear her and said, “It is just so relieving to see another woman of color here.” She went on to tell me that she had been in Amsterdam for a year and still hadn’t found a place for queer women of color. Which I was also having a problem with.

Though the people coming to Vrankrijk were mostly white (appearing) there were POC that worked the front door and also performed/hosted the main events of the night including a voguing competition. 

If there was ever a place that embodied what queer represents in Amsterdam it would be Vrankrijk. I would easily recommend this place to any and everyone because it is a safe space (anyone that endangers the safe space will be kicked out) and extremely relaxing considering that it is a bar. You will not find many POC here but the ones that you will meet are amazing people. Cheap drinks. Nice music. Engaging main events. Radical posters, stickers, and signs over all the walls. This place is an absolute must for a queer (Wednesday) night out in Amsterdam.

Please tell me about any experiences you have had with this place!!

Terms That You Need to Know!

In order to better understand the things that I will be talking about I feel as if a quick list of terms will be of great use.

Gay: This is often used as an umbrella term for the “homosexual community” but I will be using it to refer to “men that are attracted to men” whether that be sexually, romantically, or intellectually and the spaces designated for those individuals.

LGBIA: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, and asexual. This acronym lacks the T (for trans) because many spaces cater to diverse sexualities while also excluding people of varying genders.

LGBTQ+: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, etc.

POC: People/Person of color

QPOC: Queer people of color

QTPOC: Queer and trans people of color

Queer: In the United States this is used as an umbrella term for individuals in the LGBIA+ community. However, in Amsterdam it is used as an individual identity which displays a sense of independence from things such as capitalism, corporatism, and homonormativity. The Amsterdam meaning has more of a political standing which in my opinion makes it more useful than how we use it in the U.S.

Feel free to add your own corrections and/or any terms that you feel are needed for this blog!