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(dāng)秒針剛剛走過(guò)12點(diǎn)，地球上第一場(chǎng)同性婚禮在阿姆斯特丹的市政廳內(nèi)舉行。該市市長(zhǎng)約布?科恩(Job Cohen)為四對(duì)新人主持了集體婚禮。我在荷蘭長(zhǎng)大，再次觀看當(dāng)年的婚禮場(chǎng)景時(shí)，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些典型的荷蘭元素：性解放以及布爾喬亞風(fēng)格。新婚伴侶們按照傳統(tǒng)互相親吻，而身著西裝領(lǐng)帶、年事已高的父親們則滿面笑容地坐在市政廳的長(zhǎng)椅上。當(dāng)新人們?cè)诨橐龅怯洷砩虾炞謺r(shí)，他們看起來(lái)和17世紀(jì)荷蘭畫(huà)作中神情淡漠的市民非常相似，唯一的區(qū)別就在于他們是同性戀者。