2 November 2007

AMSTERDAM – Deputy prime minister Andre Rouvoet of the ChristenUnie should distance himself from fellow party members who say that homosexuals should not serve as party leaders or elected officials on behalf of the party. This request was submitted by the Liberal VVD and Democrats D66, NOS reported on Friday.

There is a great deal of division in the party on this topic. Yvette Lont, Amsterdam city council member, wants to have party regulations stipulate that homosexual individuals may not represent the party. A survey by the Evangelical Broadcasting Company (EO) reveals that two thirds of local party chairpersons share this conviction.

D66 party representatives have said that the ChristenUnie's subsidy should be withdrawn if Rouvoet does not comply with the request to distance himself from these attitudes.

PerspectieF, the youth organisation of the ChristenUnie, has said it would be unwise for the party to make a binding pronouncement on active homosexuals in the party at the ChristenUnie conference on 17 November. "That would be too hasty and ill considered," PerspectieF chairman Rogier Havelaar said in a press release on Thursday.

That is why PerspectieF is has proposed that the party executive set up a committee to investigate the matter and has called on Lont to refrain from submitting a motion demanding a pronouncement from the party.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Subject: Dutch news