Queer Places:
Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, Internal Yad Vashem Road, Jerusalem
Hendricus Wilhelmus "Henri" Methorst (April 12, 1909 – August 10, 2007) was a Dutch publisher, interpreter and advocate of gay emancipation.
He was a COC-member. Henri Methorst kept psychiatrist Coen van Emde Boas and
his wife out of nazi hands.
Methorst was born into a well-to-do family in The Hague. His father, Henri Methorst Sr., was founder and director of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). He studied law, but dropped out of college prematurely. He then travelled through Asia. After returning to the Netherlands around 1930 he became fascinated by the teachings of Krishnamurti. The wisdom of the Indian spiritual teacher would remain a guide for him for the rest of his life. He translated books by Krishnamurti and during his visits to the Netherlands Methorst acted as an interpreter.
In 1933 he founded publishing house De Driehoek together with the couple Marius Bouwman and Ans Kuiper. The main purpose of The Triangle was to release controversial writers such as Henry Miller and D.H. Lawrence, who were not published elsewhere by socially critical and sexually tinged texts. Also from 1934 a magazine was published, Perspectives of Becoming Culture, which covered topics such as theosophy, vegetarianism, abstinence, homosexuality and modern art and which focused on progressive youth. Methorst had an affair with Bouwman and Kuiper, and would later marry Kuiper. During the Second World War, the building of the publishing house was used to accommodate Jewish people in hiding. For these activities he would later receive an award from Yad Vashem.
After the war, Henri Methorst was one of the founders of the COC. His main goal was to educate relatives of homosexuals and others. Gay people should no longer be considered sick, so was his aim. In doing so, he gave depth to the fight for the rights of homosexuals, linking them to women's emancipation and human rights in general. Methorst was one of the leading figures of the COC, especially in the 1950s. Among other things, he was involved in the organization of international congresses, where his experience as an interpreter came in handy. Until old age, Methorst was involved in the activities of the gay movement as an advisor and honorary member. From 1953 he also worked as an interpreter for the European Coal and Steel Community, the forerunner of the European Union. He was the founder of Congrestolkensecretariaat in Amsterdam, which in 2000 established an award named after Methorst that distinguishes every two years an institution, organization or person who has made himself particularly deserving in the multilingual or multicultural field.
My published books:
