Together with Kshitij Mor and Michiel Kolman, I wrote an opinion piece that didn’t make it into the newspaper but that we still want to share with you:
More Than a Boat: Why Visibility and Policy Are Needed for Real Inclusion
Jojanneke van der Toorn, Kshitij Mor, and Michiel Kolman
Although major American tech companies such as Amazon and Facebook withdrew their sponsorship of Pride Amsterdam this year, dozens of organizations will once again sail along in the Canal Parade [this coming Saturday] – the festive finale of Pride Week and one of the most visible stages where companies, governments, and advocacy organizations can show their support for the LGBTQI+ community. Multinationals such as PwC, ING, KLM, and Booking.com* continue to profile themselves prominently as allies through their participation. Other Dutch companies such as KPN, Vebego, and HEMA also demonstrate their engagement, for instance via the Pride Business Club. They are not deterred by the growing anti-D&I rhetoric that—also in the Netherlands—is sounding louder and louder.
Yet, the continuation of such initiatives is not a given. In the United States, we see companies pulling back from public LGBTQIA+ expressions, under pressure from political and societal backlash. Pride flags are disappearing, campaigns are being withdrawn, and internal diversity and inclusion departments are being renamed or revised. If Dutch companies follow this trend, visibility in the workplace and in public spaces is at risk of declining here as well.
Of course, one may question to what extent the Canal Parade truly contributes to workplace inclusion. Visible symbols like these are sometimes dismissed as superficial or as “rainbow washing.” And let’s be honest: if it stops at just a boat, little will change.
But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Public displays, such as participating in and sponsoring Pride or raising the rainbow flag, are not a guarantee of inclusion, but they are important. They send a clear signal: you are free to be who you are here. For LGBTI+ employees - especially in work cultures that are less open - that can make the difference between feeling invisible or being seen. Symbolism can open the door to dialogue, connection, and change. That is precisely why it matters that the flag continues to fly—not as an endpoint, but as a beginning.
Read more in the original Dutch version below.
* Although some of them fall short in other respects, such as Booking.com, which is listed in a UN database of companies with a significant negative impact on the human rights of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories (footnote added later).
