This month one of the core artists of this site goes on trial at he Amsterdam palace of justice, where the issue is discussed whether his work could be considered child porn (december 16th at 16 hrs). Of course we all know it is anything but that; he does not use, nor abuse anybody under age in his work, nor did he ever feel inclined to go that direction. He just wanted, like many researchers in social cultural history, psychologists, brain surgeons, educators, and anybody living with the deviant brain condition called homosexuality, to know where it comes from and when it starts, and illustrate this question with examples of the first signs of awakening sexuality, that we all have and most of us remember with warm and tender sentiments. It's sad that the country, where he chose to live and felt he could pursue a carreer in this field without oppression, some decades ago, seems to let him down so terribly these days, now justice, instead of being an example of tolerance in the world, our reputation since William of Orange, with our current fundamental religious governement, seems to have moved towards tolerance only for religious intolerance. Like in the USA, it now seems acceptable to exclude homos from the population groups that can claim equal rights under the constitution, just because of this underlaying fundamental fact, which Bernard's artwork is all about: that it is not a choice to be homo, maybe not as clear as skin color or gender, but nevertheless just as irreversable without severe mental damage. So this month I chose to show a work here that links our tradition, as one of the great countries that supported art and freedom, with the days that we homos first claimed our equal place in society. It shows a work of Willem Kok, pioneer Amsterdam gay cartoonist, not co-incidentally similar to our most important art treasure, Rembrandt's Night Watch. It was published in the early seventies as a centerfold in de "Nieuwe Revu", a glossy weekly that had just then shed its earlier name of "Katholieke Illustratie", and was part of that first period of hope, that we homos could be part of the fabric of a muliculti society, that formed the Dutch society, we take for granted today. We were a valid, indispensible part of the street fighting generation of provo's, squatters, M.E, peace movement, pop-culture. Many of us still hope that our dreams and decades of effort have not been in vain, and we surely will take up arms again if we get pushed into that old corner again: tot hiertoe, en niet verder don't tempt us . . . one iconoclasm (beeldenstorm) in the 16th century in this country has been more then enough ! You may think your religion is highly superior to others' but if you think you can destroy or eredicate cultural heritage of others' think again: you're just as despicable as the Taliban. some samples of Bernards's work, indispensible part of the homo art masterclass. unknown Japanese David Ambrose daarxide Jakal chains broken splash page previous month.