AIDS Scrapbook

Fighting, Caring and Grieving: AIDS in the Netherlands
A safe sex ad on a tram in Rotterdam, 1990s
Courtesy Nationaal Archief


Introduction
In the early 1980s, a few Dutch doctors were following news in America of a deadly disease among young, sexually active gay men. These formerly healthy men were suddenly becoming seriously ill, with a range of conditions more usually seen among people with compromised immune systems.
In 1982, the first cases appeared in the Netherlands. Later that year, the cluster of illnesses and weakened immunity was named Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), although the virus that caused AIDS was not identified until 1985.
People singing at AIDS Memorial Day, Amsterdam 1991
Courtesy Han Singels


Fighting the Emerging Epidemic
From the earliest article in January 1982, the Dutch press referred to a ‘gay disease’, just as journalists in other Western countries had done. Prominent gay scientists in the Netherlands quickly challenged this representation, as part of efforts to prevent the stigmatization of gay men. In contrast to the US, the AIDS crisis did not fuel homophobia in Dutch society, due in part to this strategy, as well as the previous successes of the movement for gay emancipation.
Newspaper headlines declare a “New epidemic threatens gays” (Telegraaf, January 1982, Courtesy IHLIA);
“Serious viral illness threatens active homosexuals” (NRC, May 1982, Courtesy IHLIA); and that the largest gay rights
organization, Cultuur- en OntspanningsCentrum, the COC will provide education on “gay disease” (Volkskrant, June 1983, Courtesy IHLIA)


AIDS Advocacy Groups Collaborate
Gay organizations helped to shape AIDS policy via the culture of ‘polderen’ (political compromise), although this occurred in private meetings with government officials, leading to less public debate over the measures taken.
The organization responsible for AIDS policy was the Nationale Commissie AIDS Bestrijding (National Committee on AIDS Control), founded in 1983 as the Landelijk AIDS Coordinatieteam (National AIDS Coordinating Team).
Their main focus was combating stigma and fear of AIDS and people with AIDS.
The committee was criticized by some high-profile medical professionals, including board member and virologist Roel Coutinho (left in this image), for being too sensitive to gay rights at the risk of public health. Others criticized the group for advocating alternatives to penetrative sex but
not promoting condom use until 1987.
National Committee on AIDS Control at the launch of the first Condom Campaign, 1987
SOA AIDS Nederland, Courtesy Nationaal Archief


(Top) AIDS education at at COC, 1984. Courtesy Erwin Olaf
(Below) Board of the Belangenvereniging voor Mensen met AIDS en Arc , the first organization for people with AIDS, founded in 1985, pictured here in 1987
SOA AIDS Nederland, Courtesy Nationaal Archief
(Below) Opening of the new building of the Hiv Vereniging Nederland, Amsterdam 1991 Courtesy Han Singels
Relations between the different organizations were sometimes tense, especially between the Belangenvereniging voor Mensen met AIDS (BMA), and the Belangenbehartiging voor Seropositieven (BSP), which was aimed specifically at HIV positive people who did not have AIDS.
In 1989, the two major advocacy groups for people with HIV/AIDS fused into the Hiv Vereniging Nederland (HVN). The HVN remains the biggest advocacy group for people with HIV/AIDS in the Netherlands today.
Joop van der Linden (third on the left) , a long-time board member of the BMA said: “They were two separate worlds. Especially at a time when having an AIDS diagnosis meant that you were going to die.”


The AIDS Campaign
The first public campaign against AIDS was launched in the Netherlands in 1987. The central motif, of a bee visiting different flowers, struck a very different tone to other campaigns. Instead of evoking fear, as in the “Don’t die of ignorance” strategy in the United Kingdom, these advertisements were less frightening and more direct. They did not name gay men as a specific risk group, to help to the process of onthomoseksualiseren, meaning to break the association between AIDS and gay men. This was a key goal of the largest gay rights organization, Cultuur- en OntspanningsCentrum (COC).
“Don’t Die of Ignorance”
Courtesy Wellcome Library
Click for the Dutch commercial:
http://bit.ly/2p9rAjy
Click for the English commercial:
http://bit.ly/2oONeIS
Right: The first national AIDS Commercial on Dutch television, 1987
PMSvW/Y&R Courtesy IADDB


Safe Sex Market
Jeanette Kok speaking at the Rainbow Tour, 1998
Courtesy Stichting Namen Project
Promotional poster Safe sex Market at the Nes Amsterdam 1988
Stichting SOAAIDS Nederland, courtesy Nation Archief
Organizations responding to AIDS collaborated on events, such as the Safe Sex Markets held in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which had a lighthearted approach to the promotion of safer sex. The Amsterdam event in 1988 was organized by BMA Boardmember Jeanette Kok, a nurse who dedicated large parts of her career to advocacy for people with HIV and AIDS, and AIDS education. The 1988 Safe Sex Market attracted 20.000 visitors.
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(Left) Safe Sex Market at the Nes, Amsterdam, 1988
(Above) Dutch rock band De Dijk performing at the Safe Sex market, 1988 Courtesy Jeanette Kok


(Below) Bodypainting at the Safe Sex Market, Amsterdam 1988
Courtesy Jeanette Kok
(Above) Safe Sex education for women at the Safe Sex Market, Amsterdam 1988
Courtesy Jeanette Kok


Caring in the Buddy System
Having experienced the panic that surrounded AIDS in America, when the government was unwilling to invest in AIDS research and strategies to prevent the spread of HIV, psychotherapist David Stein was inspired by the way the gay community there took care of itself. Activities such as the Shanti Project in San Francisco, and the buddy project launched by Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York, offered practical and emotional support to people with AIDS with the help of volunteers.
“Fighting for our Lives” Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Denver 1983 Courtesy National Library of Medicine


The first Dutch buddy program was organized by the Schorerstichting, a foundation primarily occupied with physical and mental healthcare for gay men and women. David Stein played a leading role in the training and recruitment of buddies, who helped their clients with day to day chores, but also with the emotional weight of coping with their life- threatening illness. The first groups of buddies were admired by others in the gay community for taking on these responsibilities
A client and his buddy at AIDS Memorial Day, 1992
Courtesy Han Singels
The heroism associated with the work of AIDS buddies attracted more volunteers, and funding to professionalize their
training and the organization of the buddy system.
(Right) Henk Koers and his buddy at a Hospital, 1992
Courtesy Han Singels


Grieving on AIDS Memorial Day
Nurse Jeanette Kok, and psychotherapist David Stein, who had played such an instrumental role in setting up the buddy system, were also two of the founders of AIDS Memorial Day. AIDS candlelight marches had been organized as early as 1983, partly to show the public how many people had been affected by AIDS.
Stein had seen the 1985 AIDS candlelight march in San Francisco, and wanted a similar event in the Netherlands. He believes that AIDS brought gay men closer to one another to forge a true community, whereas before it was “a community of loose sand.”
(Left) Poster from the 1994 AIDS Memorial Day
Courtesy Stichting NAMEN Project
(Right) Poster from the SF march that was the inspiration for AIDS Memorial Day in the Netherlands, 1983
Courtesy GHMC


AIDS Memorial Day, Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam, 1991
Courtesy Han Singels
The first AIDS Memorial Day was organized in Amsterdam in 1985, to commemorate people who had died of AIDS. People who had lost a loved one, or who were living with HIV/AIDS, could join together families and friends to mourn the dead and share the burden of grief and worry. Although many gay men with AIDS lived in Amsterdam, their families often did not. In other Dutch towns, many people did not dare to talk about because it was more stigmatized outside of the big cities.
The first AIDS Memorial Day was quite small, but Kok and Stein were urged to continue organizing the event. Each year the event grew larger, with the rapid rising number of AIDS diagnoses and deaths in the Netherlands. Because of its growth, AIDS Memorial Day had to switch venues several times, first to the Oude Kerk, then the Nieuwe Kerk and to the Beurs van Berlage.
Over the years, many different groups affected by AIDS participated in AIDS Memorial Day, including hemophiliacs, immigrants, and intravenous drug users.


Every year the same rituals were followed, with speeches, music and displays of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. A candle was lit for every person who had died of AIDS and their name was read aloud. At the end of the day, the attendees would all go to the Dam Square and sing The Rose, a song popularized by Bette Midler. After the song, everyone released a white balloon inscribed with the name of a loved one, into the air.
Quilt display at the Dam Square, 1989
Courtesy Wim van Noort
Performance at AIDS Memorial Day, 1989
SOA AIDS Nederland, Courtesy Nationaal Archief


Rituals at AIDS Memorial Day: lighting of candles, 1994 Rituals at AIDS Memorial Day: White Balloons on Dam Square, 1992
Courtesy Stichting NAMEN Project Courtesy Han Singels


AIDS Memorial Day: Quilt displays, 2003
Courtesy Stichting NAMEN Project Nederland
AIDS Memorial Day: Performance art, 2002
Courtesy Stichting NAMEN Project Nederland


AIDS Memorial Quilt
The AIDS Memorial Quilt was first created by American activist Cleve Jones. The AIDS Memorial Quilt built out of tens of thousands of individual panels, made by family, friends and lovers who lost a loved one to AIDS. Together the panels form a giant patchwork quilt. In 1987, at the Quilt’s first display on the Washington mall, it consisted of 1920 names. Today, 48.000 people are represented on the Quilt.
The first Dutch Quilt panel was made in 1987. It was dedicated to Yuri Egorov, a Russian pianist that had fled to Amsterdam. Every year until 2013 the Dutch AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed on AIDS Memorial Day. Over 350 people that died of AIDS are represented on the Dutch AIDS Memorial Quilt.
The European AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Beurs van Berlage, 1991
Courtesy Han Singels


An End to Grieving?
After the introduction of effective AIDS medicines, the so called Highly Active Anti- Retroviral Therapy (HAART) in 1996, public interest in AIDS Memorial Day started to wane. The communities involved wanted to focus on living with HIV, not on dying of AIDS.
In 2013, after nearly 30 years of support, the HIV Vereniging Nederland stated that the world of HIV had changed and that AIDS Memorial Day no longer corresponded with their goals. In 2016, the AIDS Monument was unveiled. Instead of memorializing the dead, the monument, reminiscent of an abacus, also commemorates the living and “counting away the days until HIV and AIDS are out of the world.”
Opening of the AIDS Monument “Living by Numbers”, Amsterdam 2016
Parool, courtesy Mats van Soolingen


On World AIDS Day, the Stichting NAMEN Project Nederland, the organization that maintains the AIDS Memorial Quilt, announced that it had donated two of its panels to the Amsterdam Museum. Several other Dutch museums have since expressed interest in collecting parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. This way, the Quilt is transforming from a memorial to an artifact of Dutch heritage that tells a very personal history of the AIDS epidemic in the Netherlands.
Above: Digital AIDS Memorial Quilt exhibition, 2016.
Courtesy Amsterdam Museum
Right: full display of the Dutch AIDS Memorial Quilt, World AIDS Day 2013
Courtesy NAMEN Project Nederland


A Personal Perspective: Eric Windhorst
Eric Windhorst (right) and his buddy Pieter, 1990
Courtesy Eric Windhorst
Eric Windhorst (Haarlem, 1962) is an artist and a street musician. In the summer of 1987 Eric developed a persistent cough and suffered weight loss of which he thought was due to stress. In September 1987 Eric was diagnosed with AIDS. He was one of the first people in the Netherlands to be treated with the antiretroviral drug Azidothymidine (AZT), the earliest available treatment for HIV.


With the help of many buddies and other volunteers, they could then travel to IJsselvliedt, nearby the Dutch town of Wezep, to spend some time relaxing in comfort and safety. IJsselvliedt still exists as a private care hotel for people with disabilities and illnesses.
Eric Windhorst remembers IJsselvliedt:
https://youtu.be/1c6Y_y9sG2E
Eric Windhorst on his Friend, Julien de Vries:
https://youtu.be/ESYVlgog1es
Eric Windhorst marching and playing the bagpipe in front of Ijsselvliedt Manor
Courtesy Eric Windhorst
From 1988 until 2004, the Dutch Red Cross organized holidays for people with AIDS. Because many people with AIDS were unable to work and depended on government benefits, they could apply for a monetary contribution at the Hiv Vereniging Nederland.
Eric Windhorst on AIDS Memorial Day:
https://youtu.be/1K-Zusti7AU


Eric Windhorst on remembering and trauma:
https://youtu.be/1K-Zusti7AU


Credits
Project manager: Hugo Schalkwijk Project Supervisor: Dr. Manon Parry
Special thanks to:
Our funders the Amsterdam Center for Cultural Heritage and Identity.
Interviewee Eric Windhorst, who also donated the comprehensive photo archive from during the epidemic years.
Jeanette Kok, Han Singels, and Jörn Wolters, for donating photo's to this archival project.
David Stein, for sharing anecdotes on his role in setting up the Schorer buddy project.
Also thanks to the archives that I searched through:
IHLIA, IISG Amsterdam, Stichting NAMEN Project Nederland, Nationaal Archief Den Haag en het Stadsarchief Amsterdam.