NVSH
The Dutch Society for Sexual Reform (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Seksuele Hervorming, NVSH) is a Dutch sexual reform organization with a heterodox position on MAPs.
The NVSH was founded in 1946, as the successor of the Dutch Neo-Malthusian League, a birth control organization which opened the first birth control clinic in the world in 1881, in Amsterdam. The NVSH was once the only source of condoms in the Netherlands.
A great deal of energy went into building the organization, which in its heyday ran over 60 birth control clinics in The Netherlands. Much work in those early years was put into improving the quality and availability of contraceptives (condom, diaphragm and spermicidal jelly). In 1966 the society reached a membership of 220,000. Contraceptives were officially legalized in 1970, after which membership began to fall. In 2002, the number was about 1500[1] and late 2008 about 700.[2]
Of relevance to MAPs
According to its website, the NVSH aims for the sexual emancipation of individuals and the improvement of sexual conditions in society, including:[3]
- Informative sex education at all levels of education
- No restraints on pornography
- Criticism of marriage and the family
- No discrimination against any form of voluntary sex
- Acceptance of all forms of human sexuality, including those forms that are commonly labeled "abnormal". The website states that NVSH considers the use of the label "normal" to be "problematic", with regard to sexual practices such as premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, masturbation, Oral sex and anal sex, zoophilia, and "pedophilia".[4][5]
NVSH also supervised a children's sexual liberation group called "Kindervuist" (children's fist) in the 1980s. On June 22, 1979, a petition and a letter (both with the same content) was sent to the Dutch Minister of Justice and simultaneously was brought before the Dutch Parliament, requesting that the Age of Consent be lowered. Although it was endorsed by some mainstream Dutch social welfare and public mental health organizations, the executives of the ruling Labour Party and some minority parties, the petition failed.[6] Nevertheless, the age was reduced to 12 for over a decade in 1989.
The present Dutch "about" page of the NVSH (home: nvsh.nl) contains the cover of a book on child sexuality with two half-naked boys (may be considered illegal in some jurisdictions).
Pedophilia controversy
In March 2009, the association received negative news in connection with its support group JON for pedophiles, after research by Alberto Stegeman. The support group was presented as a platform for practicing pedophile "tips".[7]
See also
The organization COC is also of relevance - see Frits Bernard and Edward Brongersma as early reformers who interacted with the gay lib movement. Brongersma, a politician, was a prominent supporter of NVSH during its heyday of the 60s and 70s.
External links
References
- ↑ NVSH website - history of the organization - Archived
- ↑ NVSH Newsletter, November 2009 (Dutch): "Het aantal leden van de vereniging blijft dalen. Eind november [2008] werd aan 705 leden een acceptgiro verzonden."
- ↑ Archived agenda
- ↑ Normal and Abnormal sex
- ↑ Sex and society: Pedophilia
- ↑ Brongersma, Edward (1988). "Schutzalter 12 Jahre? - Sex mit Kindern in der niederländischen Gesetzgebung ("Age of Consent 12 years? Dutch legislation on sex with children")". In Leopardi, Angelo (ed.). Der pädosexuelle Komplex ("On the topic of pedosexuality") (in German). Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Foerster Verlag. p. 214. ISBN 3-922257-66-6.
- ↑ Teeven eist opheldering over pedo's. De Telegraaf, 30 March 2009