Gay Guide to The Hague
The law that made the Netherlands the first country in the world to open marriage to same-sex couples was passed here. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by 109 votes to 33 in September 2000 and the Senate by 49 to 26 that December, received royal assent days later, and took effect on 1 April 2001. The first four couples married just after midnight in Amsterdam City Hall, which is where all the photographs were taken, but the votes happened in The Hague. COC, founded in 1946 and the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ organization anywhere in the world, runs branches across this part of the country.
The scene is modest and shaped by what the city is: a government town rather than a nightlife destination. De Landman on the Denneweg, Café 't Achterom in a hidden lane in the centre and the COC Café cover it, and they are neighborhood bars in the proper sense, busy on a Thursday and half-empty on a Saturday when people head for Rotterdam or Amsterdam. De Roze Beurs in Leiden and DWH in Delft are a short train ride away.
The Internationaal Homomonument stands in the city, which sits oddly well alongside the International Criminal Court and the Peace Palace a short distance away. For a place best known for adjudicating other countries' worst behavior, it is a fitting addition.
Out at Scheveningen, Strandslag 8 and 9 are the gay sections of the beach, a straightforward tram ride from the center and genuinely pleasant in the six weeks a year the North Sea permits it.
The Hague Pride is smaller and more local than its neighbors, which suits it. Rotterdam is twenty minutes away and Amsterdam under an hour, so most people treat the three as one scene with three moods.