Gert Hekma

Gert Hekma

Gert Hekma (24 September 1951 – 19 April 2022) was a Dutch anthropologist and sociologist, known for his research, publications, and public statements about (homo)sexuality, including pedophilia and sadomasochism. He taught gay and lesbian studies at the University of Amsterdam from 1984 to 2017. Hekma became fascinated with the Marquis de Sade, Hekma has served as editor or editorial board member of many periodicals, including Sexualities (1998-death), founded by Ken Plummer, Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia (1988-1997), GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (1993-2005) , and Journal of Homosexuality (1985-death), ran until recently by the MAP allied psychologist John de Cecco.

In youth, Hekma was a member of the radical "Red Faggots" (Dutch: "Rooie Flikkers"). Hekma was a prolific book collector, and had a fetish for satin. Hekma advocated against masculinity, paternalism, traditional gender roles, and for a return to sexual practice over sexual identity.

Hekma and MAP politics

In the book reviews section for Sexualities, Hekma wrote on relevant authors including Bruce Rind, historian Phillip Jenkins, and Rudiger Lautmann. On the Rind et al. (1998) controversy, Hekma wrote:

"The conclusions are clear. There are victims but for most boys sex with adults does not create damage. Relations with adult women are experienced as a form of sexual initiation. Those with men are more problematic because boys will often start to feel insecure about sexual orientation and gender identity. These problems are not inherent in the relation but [exist] in a social context that abhors unmasculinity and homosexuality." (Book Ends, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1999, p. 505).

After Rind et al. was unanimously condemned (but not refuted) bu the United States Congress, Hekma wrote: "It is incredible that there was not one sane and thinking member of Congress to oppose this resolution." (Book Ends, Volume 3, No. 3, 2000, p. 368).

Hekma wrote an obituary for Frits Bernard (died May 2006), a Dutch psychologist, sexologist, homosexual activist, and key figure of the 1st wave of the MAP Movement, in Sexualities (2007, below).

In 2007, after a group of adolescents asked for his support, he received death threats after supporting their idea to include a canal boat for adolescents at the Amsterdam Gay Pride. In 2014, Hekma co-created a petition addressed to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, requesting that the Dutch Supreme Court not ban MAP association Vereniging MARTIJN. His support of MARTIJN resulted in death threats and an attempted burglary. Hekma was not a pedophile, and was in a lifelong adult-adult partnership sociologist Mattias Duyves (1953), who were together for more than forty years. Duyves had been a sexual partner of Michel Foucault, with Hekma meeting Duyves in 1977 and marrying in 2007.

As a historian specializing in male homosexuality, Hekma was aware that pederasty was the dominant form of male same-sex practice until the post-war (1945-) period. His writings, such as "Wrong Lovers" (1987 below),

In a 2013 book chapter "Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History", co-authored with Donald Mader, Hekma argued that pederasty comprised the vast majority of recorded history of homosexuality.

In a 2014 conference paper available to watch on youtube (external link here), later published as "Kinderen, seks en zelfbepaling" [En: Children, sex and self-determination] - read in his absence by Thomas Hubbard - Hekma gave a historical overview of Dutch movements around pedophilia and pederasty. He proposes explanations for "the surprising demonization of pedophilia":

Selected Publications

• Wrong lovers in 19th-century Netherlands, in: ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 13:2-3 (1987), pp. 43-54 (Also in the book: A.X. van Naerssen (ed), Gay life in Dutch society (New York: Harrington Press, 1987).
• Sodomites, platonic lovers, wrong lovers. The backgrounds of the modern homosexual, in Journal of Homosexuality 16:1/2 (1988/89); also in Kent Gerard & Gert Hekma (eds), The Pursuit of Sodomy: Male Homo­sexua­lity in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe (New York 1989, pp. 433-455).
• Rewriting the history of Sade, in: Journal of the History of Sexuality 1:1 (July 1990), pp. 131-136.
• "A Female Soul in a Male Body": Sexual Inversion as Gen­der Inversion in Nineteenth-Century Sexology, in: Gilbert Herdt (ed), Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Di­morphism in Culture and History (New York: Zone Books, 1994).
• Sexual Minority Rights in Europe
• Jacob Israël de Haan: Pederast poet between Amsterdam and Jerusalem, in: Florian Mildenberger (ed), Die andere Fakultät. Theorie, Geschichte, Gesellschaft (Hamburg: Männerschwarm Verlag, 2015), pp. 90-110.
• Queering Anthropology, in: Jan Willem Duyvendak, Theo Sandfort, Judith Schuyf & Jeffrey Weeks (eds), Lesbian and Gay Studies (London: Sage, 2000), pp. 81-97.
• The decline of sexual radicalism in the Netherlands (in English, published in Gert Hekma (ed) Past and Present of Radical Sexual Politics (Amsterdam: Mosse Foundation, 2004).
• Queer: The Dutch case, in: GLQ 10:2 (2004), pp. 276-280.
• Obituary: Frits Bernard (28 August 1920–23 May 2006), in Sexualities, 10:1 (February 2007), pp. 127-128.
• Pro-Gay and Anti-Sex. Sexual Politics at a Turning Point in The Netherlands (2008)
• ‘The Drive for Sexual Equality’, in: Sexualities 11:1 (2008), 51-55.
• Gert Hekma & Jan Willem Duyvendak, ‘The Netherlands: Depoliticization of Homosexuality and Homosexualization of Politics’. In: Manon Tremblay, David Paternotte & Carol Johnson (eds), The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 103-118.
• Gert Hekma and Jan Willem Duyvendak, Queer Netherlands: A puzzling example, in Sexualities, 14:6 (2011), pp. 625–631 (see p. 628 - Newgon).
• D.H. Mader and Gert Hekma, "Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History", in Censoring Sex Research: The Debate Over Male Intergenerational Relationships, ed. by Thomas K. Hubbard and Beert Verstraete (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2013), pp. 161-193.
• Kinderen, seks en zelfbepaling: Praten over pedofilie [EN: Children, sex and self-determination Talking about pedophilia], in Sociologie, 9:3-4 (2013), pp. 276-293.
• Tony Duvert: The sad ending of a promising writer. Gay News (Dutch and English magazine), No. 307; March 2017.