Rob Meerman (graphic designer)
Is Holland still a heaven for sexual, ethnic or social minorities?
No it isn't really. Most people are really quite liberal, and in politics everybody is very homo-friendly but in the streets it's a different story. We struggle to integrate muslims in our society who seem to have different opinions on homosexuality and who don’t know how important the history of Jewish people has been to Europe.
Kids who claim they are muslim have been hateful towards gay men and gay couples and it has led to people having had to sell their homes because they were being constantly harassed.
Harassment is not very haram, to use this word from the Quran, anyway.
Also, we have had the terrible incident of a refugee from Iran burning himself on Amsterdam’s main square. Asylum procedures are fucked up and people are put away for years in centres where they have nothing to do. They’re not allowed work, and spend their days in complete boredom and they sometimes radicalize as well - from this situation.
So, it’s not very good
Would you get a project from a homophobic client?
They wouldn't choose us anyway, I suppose. But if we knew, we wouldn’t accept it.
