As a Western European country, the Netherlands has absolutely no issues with homosexuality. In fact, LGTB rights in the Netherlands are among the best in the world. As a result, people have absolutely no issues ‘coming out’ in the country. There are plenty of top successful gay Dutch figures. On this page, we’re going to look at just 10 of them.
We’ve chosen these ten based on their fame, as well as the impact that they have had on gay rights in the Netherlands, plus a little bit outside too. Yes. We know that we’ve not included a lot of gay figures, and we’re sorry about that. However, if you’re Dutch, we can guarantee that you’ll already know that the names on this list are massive names.
Rebecca Loos
While she is currently married to a man (with a few children), Dutch model Rebecca Loos has constantly talked to the media about her bisexuality, and how she has dated several women in the past. She is probably one of the most high-profile Dutch figures.
If you live in the UK (or kept up with pop culture chat a couple of decades ago), then you’ll probably know exactly when Rebecca Loos first popped onto the scene. She was the personal assistant to soccer star David Beckham and claimed to have had a 4-month-long affair with him (although, we must stress that Beckham denies these claims).
Turns out that these claims were enough to catapult her to fame in the UK, and it wasn’t long before she was being snapped as a model, starring in TV shows, and even hosting her own reality program. Along the way, she dated a few women.
She hasn’t really done much recently, although most people still know her name. We suppose she was highly successful for a while, though. She is certainly one of the Dutch stars that managed to come from absolutely nothing in a short span of time, all based on her way of talking to the media and her looks.
Jos Brink
Up until his death in 2007, Jos Brink was a massive name in the Netherlands. He’s regularly been on the radio, starring in TV shows and movies, and writing newspaper columns. He was especially well known for his pushing of the Dutch to accept homosexuality and, to this day, among some people he remains one of the most prominent gay campaigners in the country.
Jos Brink spent much of his later years living with his Dutch boyfriend, while also appearing on TV. What surprises many people, however, is the fact that Jos Brink remained a devout Christian. He was actually a pastor of a church in the Netherlands. We think this goes to show that Christian churches in the Netherlands are much more accepting of gay rights than in some other countries.
Louis Van Amstel
If you live in the United States, then you may already be familiar with Louis Van Amstel. He appears as a choreographer on the TV show ‘Dancing with the Stars’. Before this, he was a global ballroom champion.
While dancing is Louis’ main career, he also dabbles in a few TV shows. Although, on those, he is normally playing as himself.
It is worth noting at this point that Louis has never explicitly stated that he is gay. He has stated that he is attracted to men and only men. However, he refuses to use the word ‘gay’ as it believes it creates a stigma around the world. So, he is championing gay rights there a little bit.
He has a son and has been in the news because of his son. His son was shamed for having two fathers by a teacher, and this caused a stir in the media which, ultimately, resulted in the teacher being fired.
Hans Klok
Hans Klok is an incredibly famous Dutch magician. He has performed on countless TV shows, produced illusions in front of global audiences of 500 million+ at the World Cup, and even had a stint on the Las Vegas Strip. Hans Klok is immensely proud of who he is, and he has been married to another man for an incredibly long time.
While Hans Klok has always been out in his native Netherlands, he wasn’t in the US due to a lower acceptance of gay rights. When he started his stint on the Las Vegas Strip, Hans was told that he had to conceal his homosexuality as it would end up causing serious problems in the country. Although, this ended up causing issues with another magician at the time (David Copperfield) who many assumed was gay, but David made it clear he wasn’t a fan of gay people.
Sipke Jan Bousema
Sipke Jan Bousema is a famous Dutch TV personality and presenter, perhaps most famous in the country for presenting the Dutch Junior Eurovision. Although, he hasn’t had a huge amount of success outside of the country. Within the Netherlands, pretty much everybody that watches TV will have heard of him at least once!
It is actually his work away from TV where he manages to gain the most attention. Sipke is very supportive of gay rights (because of his sexuality, of course) and you’ll regularly hear him talk about it on TV and in the newspapers. In fact, some have suggested that he has had a positive impact on gay rights discussions in the Netherlands, so while he hasn’t been successful outside of the country, we are sure that he is happy that he has managed to change discussions within the Netherlands!
Sipke Jan Bousema was previously married to Willem van Leunen, although it is unknown whether he still is.
Yousseff Idibi
Yousseff Idibi was an actor that broke new ground in the Netherlands in several ways. Born to a Palestinian father, he was the first successful actor in the Netherlands to have foreign descent. He was out all the time as an actor, having first come out to his parents when he was 14.
Yousseff Ibidi didn’t have that much success outside of the Netherlands, although he did have a bit of success in several TV shows. Oddly, he never really spoke in Dutch on TV. A good amount of his material was filmed in Frisian, owing to his mother coming from the region of Friesland in the Netherlands. So, he certainly didn’t have a huge amount of fame among the Dutch-speaking population.
Unfortunately, Yousseff’s career was very short-lived. He committed suicide at the age of 32, so very early on his career. We suppose it can’t have been easy being gay on TV when the nation was only starting to come around to gay rights, nor it would have been easy being one of the first major actors that were foreign-born on TV. Still, we have a good body of work from Yousseff Idibi, and it is being enjoyed to this day.
Albert Moi
Albert Moi was born in 1917, so he was certainly growing up in an era where being gay was nowhere near as accepted as it is to this day. This meant that for a lot of his career, Albert Moi remained in the closet.
In fact, in the 1940s through the early 1950s, he was married to a woman and they ended up having a child together, although the marriage eventually ended in a divorce. This may have been because Albert Moi couldn’t really hide who he was anymore.
We are pleased to say that he did eventually find love in 2003 when he registered his partnership with Guerdon Bill, and they stayed together until Guredon’s death five years later. Albert Moi died the year after at the ripe old age of 87, having lived through a very positive change when it comes to LGBTQ rights in the Netherlands.
So, what did Albert Moi do? While many people will have known him for being on TV every so often, he was more well-known for writing several books in the Netherlands. As near as we can tell, none of them were translated into English, but all of them sold incredibly well in the Netherlands.
Carlo Boszhard
Carlo Boszhard is well-known among Dutch 90s kids for hosting the children’s TV show ‘Telekids’. In the show, he was supposed to have an on-screen relationship with his co-host (as part of the storyline), but this was gradually phased out as more and more people in the public learned that he was gay.
As near as we can tell, there was never a point where Carlo Boszhard announced that he was gay to the Dutch-speaking TV world. It was always assumed from his very first appearance on Telekids, although as the show became more famous, the media started to talk about him more.
Interestingly, Carlo Boszhard is proof that the Netherlands is one of the most accepting countries in the world when it comes to gay rights. Even when he was hosting a children’s TV show, there weren’t any protests to push him off the air or anything (like you would get in the United States). People just accepted that he was gay. In fact, the biggest issue with it all was the fact that he could no longer be in an on-screen relationship with a woman, which isn’t a huge deal.
Rudi van Dantzig
Rudi van Dantzig was a political activist, ballet dancer, actor, and writer. Born in 1933, he was a major activist when it came to pushing gay rights forward in the Netherlands.
In the latter part of his career, Rudi van Dantzig put a lot of time and effort into choreographing and writing ballets. Almost all of the ballets that he produced at this time were meant to tell a story related to gay rights in some way, and he became very popular because of this.
Along the way, he would regularly campaign on TV and in the media about gay rights. When the movement really started to hit its stride, a lot of people claim that Rudi was one of the main figures that drove it forward and that a lot of it couldn’t have been accomplished without his talents.
Near the end of his life, Rudi van Dantzig moved to the United States where he tried to have an impact on the culture there too. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 78 of male breast cancer. Although rest assured, all the work that he put in over his very lengthy career has benefitted and will continue to benefit, gay people in the Netherlands.
Boris van der Ham
Boris Van der Ham is an openly gay politician, writer, actor, and philosopher (humanism), so quite a career there! He is the father to two children, a boy, and a girl.
While he was active in politics early on in his life, Boris was a very accomplished actor and decided to get into TV and movie acting (only Dutch language stuff) for most of his career. It wasn’t until later on that he realized that gay people were not being treated as well as they should be in the Netherlands, so he opted to move into politics instead.
While Boris didn’t enact any special legislation for gay people when he was a politician, he would regularly speak in Parliamentary debates on the subject, and he would be featured on the news because of this. Of course, because he was a politician, he still would have had a guiding hand on much of this legislation.
Recently, he has been out of politics (where he did have a successful career), and has decided to get back into acting, and every so often he releases a song or two.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of incredibly famous & successful gay Dutch figures. As we said at the start, we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to gay stars. You’ll find hundreds, if not thousands, more who are openly out in one of the most accepting countries in the world.
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