Chris owes his Dutch citizenship to Ivo Opstelten. ‘He gave us that gift for our volunteer work at Utopia,’ the American explains. Chris and his partner came into contact with this social project when they bought their house in Spangen. “We didn’t necessarily have much of a connection to the neighbourhood, but we did have a connection to our building. Many residents were first-generation migrants, some illegal immigrants, drug dealers or prostitutes. Then we came in contact with the Utopia project through which we could improve the neighbourhood. We did that. That project became such a success that every politician from The Hague came to see what we were doing. So did Mayor Opstelten.
He had already been living in the Netherlands for some time. First in Zutphen, with his partner Harm. He had met him earlier through work for a transport company in Amsterdam in ’92. “Because that was the core logistics of Europe,” he explains. He kept travelling back and forth between the Netherlands and the United States. Until, in 2000, he got a chance to become partners in a company in London. “But that didn’t work out. It was my first time living abroad. But I didn’t want to go back to the United States. That’s a pleasure prison anyway. You can do everything, but not go outside. I wanted to go to Europe.” His love Harm lived in Zutphen and suggested they live together. Chris didn’t have to think about that any longer. “One of those things I love about your country is that you can marry the same sex.” Moments later, Chris moved all his belongings to Zutphen.
A gap in the law
Chris discovered that at the time it was not so easy to be allowed to stay in the Netherlands for a long time. “According to Rita Verdonk’s policy back then, I was only allowed to stay for 90 days. So we found an IND employee who found a hole in the law. If I made my US company Dutch, I was allowed to stay. So that’s what I did. I hired myself and assessed myself as an employee, which was very crazy. I ticked crosses about myself that said I was a good guy. But it worked,” he laughs. Once he was allowed to stay, he got a job at Erasmus University through someone he had met in London. Less than a year later, he moved to Rotterdam.
Rotterdam known for diversity
He had visited the city before, though. “Then I found it cold and rainy. I also found it difficult to connect with people. Surely that was different in other Dutch cities.” He was not so impressed by the city’s diversity. “I already know that from Los Angeles. And I’m multinational myself. I’m Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Russian, Irish and English. All in two generations. That’s America.” That’s why he feels at home in Spangen, a neighbourhood with all kinds of people. “We have gays, Jews, Muslims, children, and we accept it all.” Still, he hopes Rotterdam will become more known for this diversity. “That it speaks out more for migration for the whole of Europe. And that we become known for that.”
Gay acceptance
Meanwhile, Chris married Harm. Despite being delighted with this opportunity, he does not see it as showing acceptance of gay couples. “That gays can marry here had more to do with the idea that we would be richer and could pay taxes,” he says. He feels that many people still think conservatively about homosexuals. “We struggled to be accepted outside our bubble. For instance, the other day we were accosted on the street by children. They asked “Who fucks whom?””
His experiences of the lack of acceptance unfortunately go beyond children. “Even though we have the same rights as heterosexuals, we are different. We have to discover that ourselves every day, there is little past and there are few traditions for us. For example, because we don’t have children and don’t have to protect them, we don’t try to be monogamous. We have many friends. For instance, another man practically lived here with us. That was tolerated, but we felt it wasn’t actually supposed to be, we didn’t get much support.”