Pride Talk Amsterdam at De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam
Amsterdam was once known as the Gay Capital of the world. Is that still a position it holds? If so, what does it entail? Do we still aspire to this title today? Does it reflect the diversity of the vibrant LGBTQIA+ community? How does the world perceive our community? And how do we in Amsterdam and the Netherlands relate to the international community and the global fight against inequality, discrimination, and violence? The annual Pride Talk addresses these questions.
The first edition was held in 2023 by the legendary American activist David Mixner (1946–2024). He was a writer, fundraiser, and performer. In the early 1960s he campaigned for John and Bobby Kennedy and for Martin Luther King. Respected human rights activist, writer, and priest Mpho Tutu van Furth followed in his footsteps in 2024 with her speech about queerness and religion. The following year, Professor Petra De Sutter, former Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, gave her talk on the position of LGBTQIA+ people now and ten years from now. All Pride Talks are available for download on this page.
Pride Talk 2025: Petra De Sutter
The third edition was delivered by Petra De Sutter (1963). She is a professor of gynecology, rector of Ghent University, and from 2020 to 2025, Deputy Prime Minister in the De Croo cabinet of the federal Belgian government — making her the first transgender person to hold such a position.
She wrote an impressive book about her eventful and activist career: [Over]Leven (Manteau, 2015). She also wrote Wie redt de toekomst? Op zoek naar hoop in verwarrende tijden in 2023. Her most recent publication is Dagboek van een politica, also published by Manteau in May 2025.
Her Pride Talk focuses on the political and legal position of LGBTQIA+ people in Europe now and ten years from now.
Pride Talk 2024: Mpho Tutu van Furth
The second edition of The Pride Talk in 2024 was led by South African Anglican priest, author, and human rights activist Mpho Tutu van Furth (born 1963). She is the daughter of activist Nomalizo Leah Tutu and Nobel Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In 2003, she was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. However, due to her marriage to her wife, Marceline van Furth, she is not allowed to serve as a priest in the Church of England or the Anglican Church of South Africa.
During The Pride Talk, she shared her remarkable journey and spiritual insights as a bisexual religious leader, stating: “I worship a Christ who was on the cutting edge of up-ending injustice.”
Pride Talk 2023: David Mixner
The first ever edition was held by American activist David Mixner (1946 – 2024). He was a writer, fundraiser, and performer, and a veteran of many battlegrounds. In the early sixties, he campaigned for John and Bobby
Kennedy and for Martin Luther King.
He became a prominent leader in the anti-Vietnam War movement and was, since his coming out in 1977, a figurehead for the LGBTQIA+ rights movement in the United States.
His Pride Talk was a call for compassion and solidarity across the rainbow community, especially for those most marginalised, and a call to always keep speaking up for our human rights.