Gay spots and events in Maastricht

Is the gay community well catered for in Maastricht? With two important Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) organisations and regular big parties, the situation doesn’t look too bad. Let’s take a closer look at the available options.

COC Limburg
Founded in 1946, the Cultuur en Ontspannings-Centrum (COC) (or Centre for Culture and Leisure in English) is the oldest and one of the biggest LGBT organisation in the world. The name originally was a cover for the real purpose of the group.

The COC has a federated structure of local organisations which at national level form the “Federation of Dutch Associations for the Integration of Homosexuality COC Netherlands” (Federatie van Nederlandse Verenigingen tot Integratie van Homoseksualiteit COC Nederland). COC Limburg, located at Bogaardenstraat 43 in Maastricht, is one of the 24 local organisations.

The activities of COC Netherlands vary from representing the LGBT community politically by having regular contacts with government representatives but also by educating the general public about sexuality, as well as organising meetings, drinks and parties for its members.

Knowledge centre and Intermezzo
People who have questions regarding their sexual orientation, or about coming out to friends or family, can visit COC Limburg’s Knowledge centre (Kenniscentrum) at COC Limburg on Wednesdays between 14:00 and 16:00. Visitors can receive advice and support from COC members and rent or buy DVDs about sexuality issues. And there is no need to become a COC member to join Intermezzo - a discussion group for gay and bisexual people which meets at the COC every Thursday evening between 20:00 and 21:30.

Café Rosé
Everyone is welcome for drinks and a chat at Café Rosé, another initiative of COC Limburg. Sometimes theme parties are organised, such as Ladies’ Night (for lesbian and bisexual women), 45+ (for those over the age of 45), Gaylectricity (for gay men). However, on all of these parties men, non-seniors, and women respectively are also welcome. Regular opening hours are: Friday 17:00-24:00, Saturday 17:00-0:30 and Sunday 17:00-23:00. Entrance is free and straight people are free to join.

Sexual education
COC Limburg is always looking for new people who would like to be active by educating the youth about sexuality in schools. Training and an information package about “the ins and outs of educating” is provided by the national COC federation and the work is paid. This type of approach gives school pupils a chance to talk with volunteers face-to-face and listen to their personal experiences connected to sexuality. Straight people are also welcome to volunteer, even if they lack the edge of having a personal understanding of the issues. Students are especially suited for this kind of work as they usually have more flexible schedules than older COC members who often have 9 to 5 jobs and are not always available during school hours. Potential volunteers can send an email to: info@coclimburg.nl and ask for an intake interview.

Cooperation with other organisations
Some people complain that not enough is being organised in Maastricht for and by the gay community. “That is not really true”, argues Wilfred van Dellen, President of COC Limburg. Apart from drinks and parties, gay people can also attend special movie nights, but Van Dellen admits that “it’s a pity that there are too few gay and gay friendly pubs in Maastricht”. The agenda section on the COC Limburg website provides information about activities all around Limburg and the list is rather extensive. Moreover, COC is planning to start cooperation with the Natural History Museum in Maastricht (Natuurhistorisch Museum) to set up an exhibition about homosexuality in the animal kingdom. In addition to this, the Centre for Gender and Diversity (within the University of Maastricht) has also expressed interest in organising events together with COC Limburg. Together with Amnesty International, COC Limburg sends letters to fight for gay rights in the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Membership
COC membership costs EUR 40 per year and people can subscribe online via the COC website. Seventy-five percent of the fee goes to COC Limburg and 25 percent to the national office. “The advantages of becoming a registered member are plentiful,” says van Dellen. “First and foremost, you can help others. You receive regular updates from the national COC, as well as a newsletter from the regional one. And a huuuuge discount is offered for the Pink Party – instead of EUR 13, members only pay EUR 5!”

Kaleidoscope
“With Kaleidoscope, we want to provide a social space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and like-minded students in Maastricht. Furthermore, we want to promote a more diverse student community in Maastricht, creating more awareness and acceptance of alternative sexual orientations and gender identities,” writes student association Kaleidoscope on its website.

Kaleidoscope’s members come from the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Poland, France, Belgium, USA and Finland, and English is the main language within the association. Kaleidoscope is run by Bachelor, Master and PhD students and gay, lesbian and bisexual members mix together. All of these factors contribute to creating a truly multi faceted environment – just like in a kaleidoscope.

Activities
Kaleidoscope organises regular drinks every first and third Wednesday of the month at Edd’s Café. Non-students are welcome to join.

Additionally, the association carries out educational and cultural activities, such as:

Student Prize
Since 2000 Maastricht University has granted a prize to a student association which has significantly contributed to the cultural or social environment outside of the academic field. The 2007 prize was awarded last September to Kaleidoscope because since its creation in 2006, the group has managed to organise numerous activities and has attracted about 25 members from various countries. Chairperson Laura Kytönen, from Finland, is very enthusiastic with the university’s endorsement, as are all other members, but “we still don’t know what we will do with the prize, to be quite honest,” she confesses. Apart from a statue, the prize consists of financial support to the tune of several hundred euros. Incidentally, it was Wilfred van Dellen from COC Limburg who secretly registered Kaleidoscope for the competition. Information about the victory came as a big surprise to all its members because they were not aware that they were actually participating!

Pink Party
Pink Party promotes itself as the biggest gay and lesbian party in the Limburg region and takes place twice a year (in autumn and spring) in La Bonbonnière theatre in Maastricht. Organised by COC Limburg, it is practically always sold out. The first edition dates back to 1978 and the event has enjoyed high success ever since.

This Saturday, 13 October, the venue will be filled with dance rhythms mixed by live DJs. The line-up includes DJ Promiss (groove, latinhouse, club, funkytechno), DJ Miss Nathalie (70’s), Mrs Daniels (disco, popsongs, rock, Dutch pop), DJ Wendy and DJ Tommie. As the location offers multiple rooms, it will be easy to satisfy a large variety of musical tastes.

Lavelöss
Each fourth Friday of the month Café Ipanema hosts Lavelöss parties – with the next party scheduled on 26 October. Musically it serves tunes as club, pop, rock, electro, and DJs as Ms Bridget, Dj Janneke, Dj Cloike, and Dj Paul have performed in the last 10 years. Lavelöss is however, much smaller than the Pink Party. Since the venue only offers one room (except for XL editions which take place about twice a year), it cannot offer as much musical diversity as the Pink Party. But the advantage of the Lavelöss parties is that they are much more frequent. Another difference between the two gay parties can be seen in the public: while the Pink Party attracts people from the whole province of Limburg, most Lavelöss guests are from Maastricht.

Both Pink Party and Lavelöss have proven to be very popular not only among people with various sexual preferences but also with straight men and women. Kaleidoscope holds pre-drinks before both events.

So is enough organised by and for the gay community in Maastricht? Laura from Kaleidoscope reckons the situation to be “ok”: in her opinion, the only thing to work on is the quality of music during gay parties. “Other than that Maastricht is too small to host bigger events or organisations,” she says.

But not everybody is satifisfied with the amount of night life spots for gays in Maastricht. Sander Spek from Kaleidoscope says that he often hears complaints from his gay friends: “Even though there is a monthly Lavelöss and a six-monthly Pink Party that leaves many other nights… There are no gay bars in Maastricht except for the Café Rosé (only open a few evenings a week) and La Ferme (mostly older people). There used to be two other gay bars, but they closed.”

Wilfred van Dellen is, on the other hand, concerned with the low amount of educational activities – in his eyes more should be done in this respect.

The level of tolerance is generally perceived as satisfactory: “I have never encountered any kind of discrimination or violence”, Laura says. But she and Van Dellen both agree that there is always room for improvement. The COC website provides a space for everyone who would like to report cases of discriminatory behaviour (Meldpunt discriminatie). This way reliable data can be collected in order to raise public awareness, help discussions with the government and in the end – make life better for the LGBT community.

By Hania Piotrowska

Hania Piotrowska is a Polish student at University College Maastricht.

Photographs: Sander Spek