The constitutional prohibition is part of COC's Rainbow Ballot Agreement and the coalition agreement of political parties VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie. COC Netherlands, founded in 1946, advocates for the rights of lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgenders.

With the explicit prohibition of discrimination, COC wants to ensure that the legal achievements for LGBTIs cannot be undone in the future, if LGBTI acceptance were to come under pressure. The Constitution binds the Dutch legislature.

A long process

Passing a constitutional amendment is a long process, in which the Parliament has to vote twice on a proposal: before and after the elections. That is why COC wants the cabinet to hurry.

COC asked Minister Ollongren on 26 June to present a short-term plan for restricting gender registration, which was also part of COC's Rainbow Ballot Agreement and the coalition agreement. COC proposes, with TNN and NNID, to no longer mention a person's gender on the identity card, as is already the case in Italy and Germany. The organizations also want to make it possible for people to abstain from gender registration, as is possible in Malta for example.

According to COC, the government should not concern itself with what people "look like down there." Non-binary and intersex people suffer from compulsory gender registration in their daily lives, while transgender people often experience problems during a transition process.

A history of discrimination

COC also asked Minister Ollongren to investigate how the Dutch government discriminated against LGBTI people in the past. The government announced last year that an investigation would be started into so-called gay lists that municipalities held in the fifties. COC proposes to expand this research.

It has been known for some time that the police in the past registered people who were homosexual, while these people had done nothing wrong. Many people were convicted on the grounds of article 248bis of the Penal Code, which set the minimum age for homosexual contact at 21 years, while it was 16 years for heterosexual contact. That law was abolished in 1971.

Finally, COC has asked the minister to promote LGBTI emancipation on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten. The group wants the promotion of LGBTI acceptance to be a compulsory subject in schools in the Dutch Caribbean.