Queen Máxima started her working visit to San Francisco not between CEOs and other hotemetes, but among the colorful residents of the special rainbow neighborhood The Castro. That resulted in beautiful, emotional scenes.
In front of the GLBT Museum in San Francisco’s The Castro neighborhood, a man glares at Queen Máxima, tears welling up in his eyes. ,,I love you majesty”, he murmurs, dressed in a faded orange shirt. “I was in Amsterdam on your wedding day and I saw you in the distance.”
,,oh well”, replies the queen, busy with the first hours of her working visit to California and Texas. “There was quite a bit of public interest that day.”
Then she responds in Spanish to a congratulation from another man, in her native language. “I am an immigrant from Venezuela”, says this Guido a little later, also crying. “To see that an immigrant in your country can become queen is so touching to me.”
The man who walked around in Amsterdam on 02-02-02 is called Tom, and quickly takes over again, while he dries his eyes with his sleeve. “It makes me emotional that the queen of such a gay-friendly city like Amsterdam is walking around here. This is so, so, so special.”
‘Queen of Amsterdam’
The working visit of Queen Máxima (King Willem-Alexander is sick in the Netherlands after pneumonia and is not allowed to fly) mainly takes place at offices, at companies, at universities, at mayors and governors and with the top of the Dutch and American business community. For a moment, she takes to the streets this Tuesday morning, on what will be the hottest day of the year in San Francisco. Here, in the cradle of the rainbow flag, she is seen and therefore also addressed as the queen of Amsterdam, the city with a reputation that every resident here seems to know.
She is accosted by fellow queens: drag queens. She is addressed by trans people. Everyone wants a selfie and a remarkable number of people get their way.
‘That’s fine’
She is applauded, sung to and applauded. By all the colorful residents of this special neighborhood, but also by members of the large Dutch community from San Francisco Bay Area. While Máxima is shown around the museum, Ingrid Buscher, who exchanged Weert in Limburg for California in 1991, tells her story. About her 17-year-old son who two weeks ago on Sunday first cooked a delicious meal and then suddenly asked in a formal tone if his parents would like to take a seat at the kitchen table. “We never do that otherwise. I was shocked, thought he was going to tell me that he had gotten a girl pregnant.”
A bystander interferes in the conversation. ,,oh no, he wanted to let you know something completely different,” the man says, nodding vigorously.
Buscher: ,,Indeed, he told us that he likes men. I had to cry for a while, but my husband said: ok, fine, nothing to worry about. And he continued what he was doing. And my Limburg mother of 84, still devoutly Catholic, said over the phone: that’s fine.”
Shout, sing and clap
Buscher swallows for a moment, but Máxima just passes by, in her bright pink creation. Buscher and hundreds of others in The Castro scream, sing, and clap. The long, first day of the working visit has only just begun, but this visit has already messed up the timetable hopelessly.
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