Haroon Ali (He/Him)
”LEARN FROM EACH OTHER’S EXPERIENCES”

Text: Paul Hofman
Picture: Leon Hendrickx
Video: Paradox Productions
Haroon Ali: “Learning from each other’s experiences. He is a freelance journalist, writer, columnist and programmer. His latest book Spectrum was recently released, subtitled The Rainbow Community in the 21st Century. Haroon (41) writes primarily about culture, diversity and the zeitgeist. Haroon is proud to be aboard Pride Amsterdam as an ambassador.
When I speak to him shortly after his ambassadorship was announced, he looks pleased. “I am enormously honored. Apparently I have contributed enough to the rainbow community in recent years to be asked to do this.’
MIDDLE POINT
About his coming out he says:’ ‘When I came out of the closet at 21, I immediately dived into the gay nightlife with a good friend, who had come out of the closet before. I’ve lived in Amsterdam practically all my life, but then discovered a different, new world, which I never dared to seek out before. I do know that I was always enchanted by the Canal Parade when I saw images on the newsreel. I also got to stand on a boat several times, which is always an indescribable experience. When you see all those people on the side cheering and waving, you feel like the center of attention for a day, instead of an outsider.’
As an ambassador, he is the ideal person for Pride Amsterdam. ‘The tricky thing about titles is that there are many other people who also deserve it, or who deserve it even more than yourself. But I think I was asked because I just released a book about the rainbow community, and also made a much-discussed documentary about homosexuality within Islam.
Given his background, Haroon growing up queer in a Pakistani-Dutch Muslim family, he does add some diversity to an already colorful and diverse group of ambassadors. “As a journalist and writer, I am also a storyteller. I find it special that I can now share my story with a larger audience, but most of all hope to pass on the stories of others, and that as an ambassador I can be inspired by diverse people, whom I will undoubtedly meet at all the events.
‘DIFFERENT‘
He has been thinking about how he will fill the ambassadorship. ‘There are many different ways how to do that, so I hope to make myself useful in the coming year. I personally would like to bring activists together to debate the Together theme during Pride Amsterdam. How do we keep the community together? I also think the wonderful feature film Joyland, about the love between a Pakistani man and a trans dancer, deserves a larger audience. For example, we could organize a nice screening with an aftertalk. On his message, “Many queer persons used to feel ‘different.’ But we often took a similar path to (self-)acceptance. So I think we need to focus less on what sets us apart from others, and more on what binds us together.
As a journalist and columnist, Haroon does not hide his opinions on issues. I am curious what he is most concerned about when considering the LGBTQIA+ community. ‘Society is polarizing more and more, with people retreating into their own bubble, not wanting to listen to people who think differently or live differently. I also see this in the community, which is increasingly falling apart into groups and sub-groups. While we can learn so much from each other’s experiences. It is precisely these mutual differences that make the rainbow community more diverse and stronger.
The acronym LGBTQIA+ consists of many letters. You hear noises in and outside the community that a person is made up of many identities but so reduced to one pigeonhole. In short, LGBTQIA+ or queer/rainbow community? How does Haroon view this?
‘A person is indeed more than their sexuality and gender identity, and we all carry a range of identities with us. So you can never focus on one aspect, but have to see the connection and overlap between identities. At the same time, you need words to describe what you feel and what you stand for. Labels help people find like-minded people and unite. And labels allow us to draw attention to groups that still experience many problems and resistance, such as non-binary, transgender and intersex people. Only when we are all treated equally and seen as full, stratified human beings can we let go of those labels altogether. Until then, I do support the label queer as an umbrella term for anyone who is different from the norm. And I prefer to speak of the rainbow community myself, in all its colors and forms.
He articulates his greatest challenge to himself and the queer community as follows: ‘At the end of my book Spectrum, I describe how I feel like I am in between two generations. As a 41-year-old millennial, I have great respect for the gays and lesbians who fought for our rights last century. My freedom and safety are legally protected thanks to their efforts. My predecessors also lost countless friends during the AIDS crisis. Thanks to the medical research they initiated and continue to sponsor, I can now love without fear. The generation after me often does not realize how valuable that mental peace is. Those who do not delve into pink history take such gifts for granted.
But a younger generation is helping us imagine a new world. They are calling attention to institutionalized racism, including within LGBTQIA+ organizations. Thanks in part to the MeToo movement, queer women are speaking out more loudly in the rainbow debate, which has long been overshadowed by gay men. They are confronting gays about their sexism and misogyny, which is often wrapped in campy humor. I’m also glad that the conversation about transgressive behavior and consent among gay men is now starting, because that can remove a lot of shame. Such discussions can clash, but that is not a bad thing and sometimes even necessary. I hope young and old will continue to learn from each other, and also keep me on my toes.
Pride ambassador since 2024