As a Dutch parliamentarian in the 1990s, Boris Dittrich was instrumental in making The Netherlands the world’s first nation to legalize same-sex civil marriages. Now a leading human rights advocate, he is spreading the message of equality around the world, writes Kees Bakhuijzen.
Boris Dittrich has a reason for celebration. On April 1, it will be ten years since the first same-sex marriage took place in his native country, The Netherlands. In those days, the Advocacy Director of the LGBT Program for Human Rights Watch was still an MP for Liberal Democrats D66 and his prominence in the party ranks had ensured that the Dutch government – a coalition with Labour and the Liberals – had agreed upon taking up same-sex marriage in the ’98 coalition agreement.
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Photo: Boris Dittrich