BLACKLIST

blacklistHere is the BLACKLIST with transphobic unfriendly venues!
I need YOU to complete this. If you have anything negative to report about the venues that are now on the GOLDEN LIST, please let them know first! If the venue itself does not take your complaint seriously: contact me and I will put them on the BLACKLIST below.

If you want your venue not to be blacklisted anymore: invite me and show me how transfriendly you are. Or ask me about ‘houserules‘ – I am glad to help you with that!
I hope it’s not a problem this whole page is in English. I need to reach as broad an audience as possible and lots of genderqueers I know do not speak Dutch.

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THE BLACKLIST
Also contains events that have been deleted from the golden list, because they’ve become too mainstream, lack diversity, misunderstand microaggressions, or whatever.
If you are part of the organisation of these events and you want to get back on: just be more queer! But seriously I’d be happy to helpt you get you transgender clients back, so just contact me.

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– The anti-butch atmosphere mentioned further more below also seems to be the case for the event BiCurious-Ladiesnight which was later renamed “girl on girl secrets”  and is now named GirlsonGirl Ladiesnight – I am hoping to hear reports from (trans)women who went there. Let me know how queerfriendly they are! Their promotion material does not look diversityfriendly or promising.
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The Cuckoo’s Nest, Amsterdam. These people should now better since they are linked to the transmale-friendly The Web. But sadly I received a report on Twitter telling how a transman was removed from the venue because the club thought a transman might “put off” other customers. Seriously guys… If you are a gay man and you don’t want to have sex with a transman, just leave them be, just like with any other man you’re not attracted to. But give a chance to other gays who DO want to cruise with transmen. Guys can make up their OWN mind whether they want to have sex with someone or not; they do not need anti-trans policing of their own sexual desires.

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Eagle Amsterdam – on their facebook page there is a public report from a visitor who saw a transman who “did not present masculine enough” being removed from the club. A very shocking event that The Eagle should publicly declare as a mistake and as a discriminatory act that should be avoided in future.
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-Flirtation, see: Let’s be open.
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‘HIPSTER’ VENUES IN GENERAL. As I said in the Golden List, I am not against hipsters as a group, I think I would probably be one myself if I had the money. What I don’t like is the disappearance of squats and their replacement with hip venues that use the squatting and ‘Berlin’ aesthetics but sell coffee for 8 euros.
These are examples of places that seem nice and creatively playful on first sight, but it turns out their ‘alternative’ look is only skin deep pretence while serving a questionably arrogant crowd:
-De Ceuvel
-Dok (Moermanskade)
-De Hallen
-Hannekes Boom
-Noorderlicht
-Pllek
-Rollende Keukens (=festival)
-De Ruyschkamer
As you can see all these venues are in Amsterdam but their style (and pricing) is spreading to the rest of the country. It’s a trend to ‘look-cheap-and-messy-yet-serve-super-expensive-junk-on-wooden-crates’. I think it’s fair to say this is not queerfriendly and it marginalizes economically precarious trans people even more.
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Kiss Kiss Club in Nijmegen has become too mainstream, according to multiple reports. Similar to PANN and its history.
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Let’s Be Open & Flirtation: are both part of the same initiative by Bianca Hagenbeek. This is proof of the fact that if a party is ‘open to women’ it is not necessarily diverse or queerfriendly! Multiple reports speak of how butch women and dykes were even refused entry to these parties a few years ago and I am unsure if this has changed.
In their current communication they still seem to promote a ‘feminine’ look and are only accessible for lipstick femmes and ‘beautiful’ women, whatever the fuck that may be.
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MAINSTREAM GAY VENUES IN GENERAL. This is not 1 place but many… I’m, talking about the Jimmy Woos where you’re only allowed in if you are ‘someone’ (what does that even mean?? The Netherlands is much too small to have an attitude!).
The same blacklistnomination goes to lots of other mainstream gay/lesbian venues, you know, all those Reguliersdwarsstraat bars that play Andre Hazes and Madonna, and who THINK they are transfriendly but fail to understand te difference between BEING welcome and FEELING welcome.
You might wonder: why don’t I just mention ‘all bars’ in general’ without the ‘gay’ – well obviously one would expect gay bars to be more transfriendly than straight bars, unfortunately reality bites.
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PANN in Utrecht, nicely volunteer based but multiple reports say this party lacks diversity now (little diversity in age and gender expression, unless they have a 30+ event in EKKO). PANN used to be such a nice mix of kinky people, old gays and youngsters. But that was in the nineties of last century. Now it’s gone totally homogenous.
A word of advice: if you want ‘different’ people to feel comfortable, make sure that there actually is DIVERSITY.
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candidate for the Blacklist: Ruigoord, Amsterdam. It pains my heart but this used to be such a truly interesting spot. Now it mainly hosts expensive dance festivals that are inaccessible to poor (transgender) people. Where is the art? Where have all the flowers gone?
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candidate for the Blacklist: Cruiserz Party, Arnhem. Gay sauna party. I am currently communicating with them through facebook so I am not sure if the one person who is sending me nasty negative messages speaks for the whole organisation. I’ll need to get into contact with the actual venue, Steamworks, first I think. Let’s give them a chance.
blacklistT
candidate for the Blacklist: De Trut. I know it’s surprising, read more about it here.
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Come on! You can do good again!
Contact me if you want to come back on the Golden List.
And: if anyone has feedback on this list, you can do that anonymously by emailing me, or do it here publicly by adding comments, down below.

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