The town of Tilburg in the Netherlands recently created a genius plan to confront homophobia head on, threatening to create a "gay village" and effectively segregate society. Organizers of Pink Monday, an event promoting tolerance of the LGBT population, proposed the village with developer Blauwhoed after statistics showed that 30% of lesbians and 22% of gay men did not feel safe in their home country. Controversy and backlash ensued before the plan was revealed to be a hoax.
Peter van der Vorst, a Dutch radio presenter, tweeted that the village would be "a fenced gay ghetto", while Cornald Maas, a television presenter, commented: "Shameful and moron plan, it is like creating an outdated ghetto community for a safer 'straight' society."
Tanja Ineke, president of the gay rights group COC Netherlands, condemned the plan and commented that law enforcement should improve safety and social inclusion.
"This is not the direction we want to go in to solve the security problems of the LGBT community," she said. "It is up to the police, local authorities and central government to solve them so that LGBTs in every city, every neighbourhood and every street feel safe, not only in a separate area with a fence around it."
The project's planners went so far as to make a website.
"We go further than just housing," the Gay Village website read. "Together with the future residents, we determine which services will provide for the community: its own supermarket, tennis court, a cooking school, a chapel or a gym, so you live in a quiet green area with all mod cons."
Pink Monday organizers were pleased with the outrage their plan engendered, stating: "All we wanted was to create an awareness, and we are certain that we succeeded in this."
Well-played, Netherlands. Well-played.
