Geert Wilders: The Man Who Turned Gay Rights Into “A Weapon” In A War Against Muslims

[TomSea]

The Man Who Turned Gay Rights Into “A Weapon” In A War Against Muslims
Geert Wilders spent years arguing that Islam threatened gay rights in the country that gave marriage equality to the world. His party now leads polls in upcoming Dutch elections, and his battle cry is being copied by Donald Trump and France’s Marine Le Pen.

By J. Lester Feder BuzzFeed News Reporter, AddieSchulte  BuzzFeed Contributor
Kim Deen  BuzzFeed Contributor

Reporting From Amsterdam, The Netherlands
posted on Mar. 4, 2017, at 9:41 a.m.

AMSTERDAM — On a chilly evening in late February, a small group of queer and immigrant activists gathered on the west side of Amsterdam to prepare, as one attendee put it, “for the apocalypse.”

For months they had endured an increasingly strident debate about immigration ahead of elections on March 15, and they were tired of being caught in the crossfire. The race has been dominated by Geert Wilders, the bleached-blonde leader of the Party for Freedom who polls show could win the largest bloc of votes in parliament. His candidacy is being watched as the next test of the nationalist wave that drove Britain out of the EU and put Donald Trump in the White House.

But the race is also uniquely focused on gay rights, because Wilders has framed his crusade against Islam in part as a defense of national values in the country proud to have adopted the world’s first marriage equality law and has remained a leader on LGBT rights in the years since. And several more moderate politicians have echoed the message that Muslim immigrants threaten gay people.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/geert-wilders-the-netherlands?utm_term=.khEywLa7g#.py4dj429Y