Coda

Paradoxically, Belgium played an important role in the internationalization of homosexuality as a policy issue during the 1950s. In the wake of liberation from Nazi Germany, social disruption sparked anxiety over the moral corruption of the young. Following changes to the way prostitution was policed, rising arrest numbers led to the discovery of male homosexuality as a ‘new’ social problem. In turn, Belgian officials placed the matter on the agenda of Interpol as a phenomenon meriting attention globally. Influenced by the American Kinsey studies, the British Wolfenden report, and the postwar language of human rights, homosexuality’s partial decriminalization was officially endorsed by Interpol, the United Nations, and other international bodies by the late 1950s. Ironically, in Belgium alignment with the proposed model led to the partial criminalization of homosexual acts for the first time. However, before long the country’s peculiar culture of conflict management opened political backdoors that began the quiet osmosis of the budding gay and lesbian movement into subsidized civil society. By 1999, when Christian Democrats lost their previously tight grip on political power, a progressive coalition jumped headlong into a series of reforms, quickly turning Belgium into the global champion of LGBTQI+ rights that it remains today.