My lovely people, how was your summer? Mine was alive with powerful moments that inspired me deeply. One of the highlights took place in Amsterdam, the capital of the country I call home – The Netherlands – during WorldPride 2026. Fresh from AIDS 2026 in Rio, I stepped onto the Pride Boat, representing EATG aboard the EMA (European Medicines Agency) float. With pride and urgency, I carried my message of HIV prevention and stigma reduction, delivered with the fervour our community deserves.
That moment felt like an appetizer for another powerful gathering, the first ever Black Pride Festival in Amsterdam, a parallel event to WorldPride. Black Pride is more than a festival, it is a movement and a platform rooted in the experiences, histories, and futures of Black LGBTQIA+ communities in the Netherlands. We exist because our community has always created spaces of care, resistance, celebration, and imagination, often without the recognition or resources we deserve.
Through culture, conversation, education, art, nightlife, and collective organizing, Black Pride makes space for Black queer lives to be seen fully in our vulnerability, joy, creativity, spirituality, and FREEDOM.
The event, Blueprint for Liberation through Collective Power, brought together so many inspiring voices:
- Lady Phyll, founder and CEO of Black Pride UK, reminded us why Black Pride was born in 2005: “People who were told there was no space for them. Too Black for queer spaces, too queer for Black spaces. We built our own home. Today in Amsterdam we choose joy, chosen family, and we choose to call each other home.”
- Tieneke Sumter, cultural worker and queer activist for over 40 years, shared Black queer history, honouring pioneers like Tania Leon and others who fought from the beginning of the resistance movement.
- Kenya Hutton, CEO of the Center for Equity in New York, declared: “Black Pride is FREEDOM.” They reminded us that Pride is not just celebration. It is resistance, advocacy, and solidarity, especially when rights are under attack. His program focuses on HIV prevention, education, and awareness.
- March Bannor, trans activist and community leader, highlighted the visibility of trans men in the Netherlands. Seeing a trans man present was powerful as representation matters, and it showed that our movement includes everyone in the Black queer community.
During the talks, I raised questions about HIV prevention, awareness, and stigma in our Black and queer communities in the Netherlands. I emphasized that we cannot wait for big organizations, where people of colour are all too often underrepresented, to “save” us. HIV stigma, discrimination, and racism are deeply tied to mental health struggles. There cannot be Black joy when someone is suffering in silence. The speakers thanked me for bringing this crucial issue forward.
The festival was alive with energy: the queer market, ballroom, tarot readings, exhibitions of queer archives and HIV history in the Netherlands, DJs, MCs, and endless dancing and laughter. At the queer market, I connected with people while sharing HIV Stigmafighter pins with fellow community members.
I had a really interesting conversation at the Afrotunda queer market stand where I asked how they felt about Black Pride and I believe their answer sums up the event very well: “Being part of the first Black Pride Festival was so special and empowering. You could really feel the energy vibrating through the community, and the amazing platform given to Black queer creativity. I am super grateful that we got a chance to show up and share our work in a space filled with so much Black joy, representation, and genuine connections.”
I couldn’t agree more. This is just the beginning. One day, perhaps, we will host a World Black Pride in Amsterdam, inviting activists and artists from countries where being queer is still criminalized. That dream belongs on the dreamtree of Black Pride Amsterdam.
To my fellow community members: I am Black, I am queer, and I am living with HIV. All three truths can exist in the same body as joy. To find that joy, you must get tested, get treated, and embrace who you are.
Peace,
Eliane
HIV stigmafighter 