Why is LGBTQ+ acceptance falling in the Netherlands? What the new figures show

The Netherlands was the first country to open marriage to same-sex couples. Three separate studies published this autumn suggest that legal firsts and social comfort are no longer moving together.

Credit: La Sequencia / CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

What the national monitor found

On 6 October, NL Times reported on the latest LGBTQIA+ monitor from Movisie, carried out with Ipsos I&O and the advisory bureau Panteia. According to that report, acceptance of gay and lesbian people has not risen over the past two years, while acceptance of transgender, non-binary and intersex people has dropped slightly. NL Times also reported that over a third of respondents do not recognise a trans woman as a woman. Het Parool's Amsterdam edition ran the same findings the next day under a headline stating that acceptance of transgender, non-binary and intersex people is declining.

The headline figure needs reading carefully. This is not a collapse in support: the monitor still describes a majority that accepts gay and lesbian people. What has changed is direction. A long upward trend has stopped, and for some groups it has reversed.

COC Netherlands and Transgender Network called the stagnation a worrying development in a joint statement, as reported by NL Times. DutchNews.nl separately quoted COC director Marie Ricardo describing a related set of findings as a “frightening development”.

Young people: the sharpest drop

The steepest fall comes from schools. The Dutch Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, run by Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute, found that the share of boys in secondary education with a positive attitude towards homosexuality fell from 40 per cent in 2021 to 22 per cent in 2025. Among girls it fell from 78 per cent to 51 per cent. Utrecht University published those figures itself, and DutchNews.nl and IamExpat both reported them.

IamExpat adds a caveat worth repeating: the researchers measured attitudes through three statements about friendship with gay young people and reactions to two boys or two girls kissing, and pupils who did not land in the “positive” group were not automatically classed as negative.

The same research found that pupils see school as a less open place. In 2021, 60 per cent of secondary pupils thought gay or lesbian classmates could be open about their orientation at school. By 2025 that had fallen to 45 per cent, according to IamExpat's summary of the study. That measures perception of the school environment, not personal experience of discrimination.

Illustrative image, generated for this article — not a photograph of the event.

Sports clubs tell the same story

In late October, the Mulier Institute, which researches sport, published a survey of club members. As reported by NOS and DutchNews.nl, 66 per cent of respondents had no objection to a gay clubmate, down from 85 per cent in 2008. Those who said they did not mind showering with a gay team-mate of the same sex fell from 73 per cent to 55 per cent.

One detail runs against expectation. NOS and IamExpat both report that the share of club members saying their club pays attention to gay acceptance rose from 12 per cent in 2017 to 28 per cent in 2026. Mulier researcher Rens Cremers told NOS that this attention may have made people realise coming out is harder than they had hoped.

• The sports umbrella body NOC*NSF called the findings “highly regrettable” and said it would step up its efforts, according to DutchNews.nl and NOS.

• The John Blankenstein Foundation, which campaigns for LGBT emancipation in sport, told NOS that interest in its workshops is declining and that clubs are often willing but parents object.

• Foundation founder Karin Blankenstein called the trend “shocking” while stressing that her concern is amateur, not elite, sport.

Reports of discrimination keep climbing

Attitudes are only one measure. In April, COC Netherlands, citing a report from the police and anti-discrimination services, said reports of discrimination and violence against LGBTI+ people rose from 2,654 in 2022 to 3,257 in 2023, 4,467 in 2024 and 4,800 in 2025. IamExpat reported the same series in October.

Transgender Network recorded a 51 per cent rise in unique reports of discrimination against trans people, from 264 in 2024 to 399 in 2025. These are reports, not confirmed hate crimes, and a rise in reporting can partly reflect greater willingness to report.

Why legal equality is not enough

IamExpat makes the central point plainly: the right to marry says little about how comfortable someone feels coming out to teammates or classmates. Marriage equality arrived on 1 April 2001 and the country marked its 25th anniversary this year. The new data show that rights on paper need continual social upkeep.

Those who defend LGBT rights have concrete asks. COC wants more attention to acceptance and respect in schools, more discrimination investigators and police capacity, and delivery of the anti-violence measures in the 2025 Rainbow Agreement. Whether the government acts is a political question; the figures that frame it are not in dispute among the outlets above.

For Amsterdam, where COC was founded in 1946 and the first same-sex weddings took place, the lesson is practical. Visible, safe social spaces are not a legacy feature of the city. They are infrastructure that has to be kept up.

What it means for the Vibra community

Nightlife is one of the places where acceptance is lived rather than surveyed. A venue where queer people can dance, flirt and arrive without scanning the room is a daily counter-argument to the trend lines above. At Vibra we think the answer to falling acceptance is more shared space, not less: more events, more mixed company and more ways for people to find each other. Follow Pulse for what is on in Amsterdam this weekend, and bring someone who has never been.

Sources: NL Times, “Acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people stalls or declines in the Netherlands, monitor finds” (6 Oct 2026); Het Parool, “Acceptance of transgender, non-binary and intersex people declines” (7 Oct 2026); Utrecht University, “Acceptance of homosexuality has decreased sharply among adolescents in the Netherlands” (2026); DutchNews.nl, “LGBT tolerance slumps in the Netherlands as debate turns vicious” (Sept 2026); DutchNews.nl, “Sports club members becoming less tolerant of homosexuality” (27 Oct 2026); NOS Nieuwsuur, “Homo-acceptatie daalt ook op sportclubs: ‘Schrikbarend’” (Oct 2026); IamExpat, “LGBTQIA+ acceptance in the Netherlands is dropping” (27 Oct 2026); COC Nederland, “Lhbti+ discriminatie blijft toenemen” (16 Apr 2026).