WELCOME TO ANTWERP
WELKOM IN ANTWERPEN - BIENVENUE À ANVERS
PHILIP HEYLEN SCHEPEN VOOR CULTUUR ÉCHEVIN DE LA CULTURE STADTRAT FÜR KULTUR ALDERMAN FOR CULTURE
Someone who is out is someone who’s excluded. Someone who comes out is someone who keeps society focused. Antwerp wants to be such a community – one that remains focused and makes no concession to any form of exclusion whatsoever. The organization of the WorldOutgames epitomizes this. During the year in which we are European Capital of Sport it is our aim to attract through the sport in our city as many people as possible, also those who are gay, lesbian or transgender. The title of the congress related to the WOGA 2013 is ‘From Safe Harbours to Equality’. For many centuries the global port of Antwerp has formed the city’s DNA. Via the River Scheldt people from cultures of every description have poured into our city. People of all types and with all kinds of preferences found here a home port in which to do business. To exchange goods and ideas. To create art. Without this cross-fertilization we would never have become what we are today. Antwerp represents everything that a port city must be. Let us please preserve this candour. We have to dredge the Scheldt regularly so that it does not become silted up. This applies equally to world view and our mentality. Security and forbearance go hand in hand, also in the case of people of the same sex who wish to walk hand in hand along our streets. The WorldOutgames may also just be highly enjoyable. And if someone is going to feel ‘out’, then let it be the Antwerp citizen who is nursing his phenomenal hangover after the umpteenth phenomenal party! As someone once said: ‘L’Anvers, c’est l’autre’ – ‘Antwerp, that’s something different’.