By Rex Wockner
International News Report
 Pim Fortuyn: Supported by gays in the Netherlands |
Readers of the Dutch gay magazine De Gay Krant favor
maverick gay politician Pim Fortuyn in the May 15
national election, a survey found.
Twenty-three percent of the readers support Fortuyn's
party, Lijst Fortuyn, compared with 20 percent who
favor the Liberal party, which polled in second place. |
Fortuyn was thrown out of the national party Liveable
Netherlands in February after he made anti-Muslim
statements. He then formed Lijst Fortuyn. In March,
his local party, Liveable Rotterdam, captured 37
percent of that city's council seats.
Fortuyn and his followers are particularly upset over
the anti-gay and conservative social views of Muslim
immigrants.
"I would simply say, no more Muslims can come in!"
Fortuyn said. "Islam is ... simply a backward
culture."
Fortuyn
bristles, however, when called a right-winger.
"I find it intolerable that I am being compared with
statesmen such as [Joerg] Haider and [Jean-Marie] Le
Pen," he said April 8, referring to right-wing
politicians in Austria and France. "My policies are
multi-ethnic and certainly not racist."
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Dutch Muslim clerics were threatened with criminal
prosecution last year for calling homosexuality a
"shameless," "scandalous," "intolerable" "sickness"
that "could destroy society." There are about 800,000
Muslims in The Netherlands, many from Morocco and
Turkey. They are about five percent of the population.
Fortuyn is 54, shaves his head, smokes cigars and
travels in a luxury car with his dogs. His Web site
says: "His lifestyle is noble, his thinking utterly
non-conformist, he is a romantic at heart. Literature
and ideals, fury and doubt, hedonism and compassion:
Pim Fortuyn is a multi-cultural country all by
himself. Aesthete and grass-roots democrat. Privileged
child and desperado. Dadaist with a gladiator's head.
Rebel with a cause."
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Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
Dutch Roman Catholic Priests Support Gay Unions
Americans Marry in Amsterdam
Amsterdam Gay Zoo Tour Grows
Related Sites:
De Gay Krant
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