No place for transphobia!

Transphobia in the Netherlands

In August 2025, Emily, a trans woman, was attacked in the Ypenburg neighbourhood of The Hague, after she caught two men defacing lampposts with racist texts and swastikas. This assault was not an isolated expression of violence. Hatred against trans people is expanding, in the Netherlands but also internationally, and has given rise to alarming conspiracy theories which dehumanize trans people and ostracize them for being a supposed threat to society. As a result, queer people rapport high feelings of unsafety in the public space and trans people in the Netherlands are seven times more likely to be a victim of physical threats and violence.

This increased transphobia cannot be separated from the parliamentary unwillingness to protect the lives of trans people and the rightwards movement of Dutch politics more generally. Group defamation, for example, still does not apply to trans people in the Netherlands while the Dutch parliament simultaneously withdrew the new ‘transgender law’ in July. The expert statement that is still needed to change one’s gender designation and has been causing long queues in trans care, has consequently not been abolished, undermining trans people’s right to self-determination. Moreover, the scapegoat politics of rightwing (extremist) politicians position minority groups as the cause of societal problems while the majority of parliament classifies solidary anti-fascist movements as terrorists. All the while right-extremist violence in this same period did not receive such a label.

No hate on the streets!

 To resist the increasing hate towards trans people and other social minorities, our partners from Geen Haat op Straat (No Hate on the Streets) organized a protest in September 2025 at the shopping center in which the victim was attacked only a month prior.

Around 80 people marched through the streets of Ypenburg to remind the local neighbors of the violence that had been committed in the neighborhood and to stress that safety in the public sphere is a shared responsibility. The different guest speakers problematized the normalization of transphobia and other expressions of exclusion and dehumanization towards minority groups. Together, the protesters showed their demand for a free and just society and formed a strong counter voice against the rightwing political wind which pits citizens against each other.

Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action and stands in solidarity with all groups which resist violence against minority groups and the dehumanization of trans people.