A few seconds after midnight on April 1 2001, the first gay weddings on earth took place in Amsterdam town hall. Four couples were simultaneously married by the city's mayor, Job Cohen. I grew up in the Netherlands, and re-watching the scenes, I found them that typically Dutch thing: sexual revolution, bourgeois style. The newly-weds exchanged the traditional kisses while ageing fathers in suits and ties beamed from the town hall's benches. When the couples signed the register, they looked just like the stolid burghers of 17th-century Dutch paintings, except gay.
2001年4月1日午夜，當秒針剛剛走過12點，地球上第一場同性婚禮在阿姆斯特丹的市政廳內舉行。該市市長約布•科恩(Job Cohen)爲四對新人主持了集體婚禮。我在荷蘭長大，再次觀看當年的婚禮場景時，我發現了一些典型的荷蘭元素：性解放以及布爾喬亞風格。新婚伴侶們按照傳統互相親吻，而身著西裝領帶、年事已高的父親們則滿面笑容地坐在市政廳的長椅上。當新人們在婚姻登記表上簽字時，他們看起來和17世紀荷蘭畫作中神情淡漠的市民非常相似，唯一的區別就在於他們是同性戀者。