With a history of progressive developments, like squatting, legalizing same-sex marriage, pioneering harm reduction practices, and integrating club culture with queer expression at institutions like Club RoXY or Club iT, Amsterdam has become a known haven for many dancing queers around the world. This appeal has also led to a dense population which incentivizes the development of residential buildings that marginalized groups cannot afford, simultaneously reducing nightlife spaces.
Like the essence of queerness, Amsterdam’s stance on queer rights and nightlife is anything but singular or linear. Communities and places that gave the city its strength are facing more disadvantages. Meanwhile, the city's renowned electronic music scene further invites the co-optation and commercialization of queer culture, at the expense of queer people.
To talk about queer nightlife in Amsterdam today is to go back to its roots, into the underground, speaking to those who are creating spaces and changes from their communities upwards. With 12 stories that span collectives, artists, organizers, historians, advocates, and community members, Issue 01 invites you to immerse in the ecstatic energy, diverse expression, ingenious entrepreneurship, community love, and collective resilience that is alive today, in Amsterdam's queer nightlife.