August 17, 2020 – Today it was announced that on August 9, our meritorious member Chrisje van Hezik-van Gent passed away. Chrisje was born on July 23, 1920 in 's-Hertogenbosch. From 1947 she lived in Voorburg until her death.

Her first acquaintance with COC Haaglanden was by attending a meeting of the Working Group Parents of Homosexual Children. This was around 1980. During that time she also became a member of COC Haaglanden. At the time, many young people visited the HlG youth group based there. By coming into contact with these young people, Chrisje was able to approach the parents via a detour. That is, the parents who had difficulty accepting their child's homosexuality.

She herself had absolutely no problem with her child being homosexual. But she knew that unfortunately this was not the case for all parents. The cases of rejection of homosexual children by their parents was a thorn in her side. For her every reason to devote herself to these children, which she continued to do until the 21st century. The Working Group Parents of Gay/Lesbian Children grew into its own organization, which came to be known as SLOW (Stichting Ouders van Homosexual Children).

Chrisje's story showed that it is important that COC Haaglanden presents itself in the media. Because, she said in 2003, it was through an article in the Haagsche Courant about two lesbian women that she could have approached one of those women, after which she ended up in the pink circuit. Chrisje was invited to walk along during the Pink Saturday, then in Leiden, which has strengthened her enormously. She thought you should show yourself!

During that time she also volunteered in the COC coffee bar on Thursday afternoons. The coffee bar was partly there for the integration of the population of The Hague, it was described. When a straight couple walked into the bar in the afternoon and looked around in amazement that everything looked so ordinary, Chrisje said: “Then you should come back tonight; then you will see something different here!” Later, the coffee bar became the COC Café on Scheveningseveer 7.

She stood up for the place of young people within COC Haaglanden. On Wednesday evening during the then Basta diner, she wanted more young people to come. Information to the parents was still necessary in her old age. She did see that the demand from parents was decreasing. In her opinion, this could also be because more information had become available through the Internet, among other things, through a different route, which, according to Chrisje, makes parents more ashamed to make the point that they do not accept their child's homosexuality. It occurred to her that society has now accepted it. That was in 2003, the year of her appointment as a member of merit.

Since 2003 Chrisje has often visited COC Haaglanden. As she got older she was no longer able to commit herself, but her fire always burned. Chrisje was very popular with members, volunteers and visitors of the association. Many young people and their parents have benefited from her efforts. The author of this text was one of those young people himself.

At her request, Chrisje's farewell took place soberly and privately in her own home. Further information can be obtained from secretaris@cochaaglanden.nl

The board of COC Haaglanden would like to express its gratitude and wishes her children, family and friends a lot of strength with this loss.

On behalf of the Board,

Jurgen Schouten

General board member

View here Chrisje's funeral card