Coos Huijsen
| Jacobus (Coos) Huijsen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Dutch House of Representatives | |
|
In office June 20, 1972 – December 7, 1972 | |
|
In office March 30, 1976 – June 8, 1977 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 20, 1939 The Hague, Netherlands |
| Political party |
Christian Historical Union (1972-1976) Group Huijsen (1976-1977) Labour Party (1977) |
Coos Huijsen (born March 20, 1939 in The Hague) is a former Dutch politician, who was a member of the House of Representatives in 1972–1973 and from 1976 to 1977. In his first term in office, he was a member of the Christian Historical Union, which he left because the party would not support the left-leaning Den Uyl cabinet; in his second term, he sat as an independent member under his own banner of Groep-Huijsen.[1]
As a member of the House of Representatives in 1976, Huijsen came out as gay, making him the country's first openly LGBT politician and the first known openly gay member of a national legislature in the world.[1][2] In 2016, Huijsen published an autobiographical account of his coming-out, in the context of a changing Dutch society in the 1970s: Homo Politicus (Balans, Amsterdam).
After leaving parliament, Huijsen worked as a school teacher and director.[1] He also switched parties again, becoming a member of the Dutch Labour Party in which he was active until 2000; he left that party because he found the party put too little work into education and gay emancipation.[3] He then pursued a career as a historian, publishing several books on the Dutch monarchy, including:
- De oranjemythe, een postmodern phenomeen ("The Orange Myth, a postmodern phenomenon"),[4]
- Beatrix: De kroon op de republiek ("Beatrix, crown on the republic"; 2005)[5] and
- Nederland en het verhaal van Oranje ("The Netherlands and the story of Orange"; originally a PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2012).
- Homo Politicus. De eerste parlementariër ter wereld die uit de kast kwam ("Homo Politicus. The First MP Worldwide Who Came Out of the Closet" - autobiography)
References
- 1 2 3 "J. (Coos) Huijsen". Parlement & Politiek. Parlementair Documentatie Centrum, Leiden University. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ↑ "Harvey Milk's legacy". Washington Post, May 21, 2014.
- ↑ Adri van Esch (16 December 2006). "'Beatrix is geen ijskoningin'". Gay Krant.
- ↑ Willem Breedveld; Frans Dijkstra (15 August 2005). "Monarchie / De inspirerende Oranje paradox". Trouw.
- ↑ Jan Hoedeman; Remco Meijer (23 April 2005). "Een spontane vrouw in een te politieke wereld".