Coos Huijsen

Jacobus "Coos" Huijsen (born March 20, 1939 in The Hague) is a Dutch historian, writer, former educator, former Dutch politician, and gay rights activist. He was the first parliamentarian in the world (1976) to openly express his homosexuality.[1]

Jacobus "Coos" Huijsen
Member of the Dutch House of Representatives
In office
June 20, 1972 – December 7, 1972
In office
March 30, 1976 – June 8, 1977
Personal details
BornMarch 20, 1939
The Hague, Netherlands
Political partyChristian Historical Union (1972-1976)
Group Huijsen (1976-1977)
Labour Party (1977)

Huijsen who was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives in 1972–1973 and from 1976 to 1977. In his first term in office, he was a member of the Christian Historical Union, which he left because the party would not support the left-leaning Den Uyl cabinet; in his second term, he sat as an independent member under his own banner of Groep-Huijsen.[2] As a member of the House of Representatives in 1976, Huijsen came out as gay, making him the country's first openly LGBT politician and the first known openly gay member of a national legislature in the world.[2][3] In 2016, Huijsen published an autobiographical account of his coming-out, in the context of a changing Dutch society in the 1970s:

  • Homo Politicus. De eerste parlementariër ter wereld die uit de kast kwam ("Homo Politicus. The First MP Worldwide Who Came Out of the Closet" - autobiography)[4]

In this book, Huijsen describes how he participated in the Dutch gay rights movement in the years after his coming-out, when he co-founded the Foundation for Free Relationship Rights (Stichting Vrije Relatierechten). The goal of this foundation was to make the gay community address the larger public and the political establishment, by appealing to their sense of humanity. Gay rights were human rights, and, as such, were to be put on the political agenda. It paved the way to legal equality for same-sex relationships, and, finally, in the introduction of same-sex marriage in the Netherlands (2001).

After leaving parliament, Huijsen worked as a school teacher and director.[2] He also switched parties again, becoming a member of the Dutch Labour Party in which he was active until 2000; he left that party because he found the party put too little work into education and gay emancipation.[5] He then pursued a career as a historian, with a specific interest in the cultural-historical context of democracy. His first book, Nog is links niet verloren ("The left is not yet lost"; 1982) described the widening gap between the elites of progressive political parties and their popular, traditional base. Later, Huijsen wrote multiple books about the relations between the Dutch national narrative and the royal dynasty, the House of Orange, including:

  • De oranjemythe, een postmodern phenomeen ("The Orange Myth, a postmodern phenomenon"),[6]
  • Beatrix: De kroon op de republiek ("Beatrix, crown on the republic"; 2005)[7] and
  • Nederland en het verhaal van Oranje ("The Netherlands and the story of Orange"; originally a PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2012).

Huijsen is married and lives with his husband in Amsterdam.

References
  1. Reynolds, Andrew (2018). The Children of Harvey Milk: How LGBTQ Politicians Changed the World. Oxford University Press. pp. 103–105. ISBN 9780190460952.
  2. "J. (Coos) Huijsen". Parlement & Politiek. Parlementair Documentatie Centrum, Leiden University. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  3. "Harvey Milk's legacy". Washington Post, May 21, 2014.
  4. "Extensive personal life story of Coos Huijsen (6 pages)". Huijsen.nl. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  5. Adri van Esch (16 December 2006). "'Beatrix is geen ijskoningin'". Gay Krant.
  6. Willem Breedveld; Frans Dijkstra (15 August 2005). "Monarchie / De inspirerende Oranje paradox". Trouw.
  7. Jan Hoedeman; Remco Meijer (23 April 2005). "Een spontane vrouw in een te politieke wereld".


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