"Love has no borders": Maximá of Holland, first queen to participate in Pride Day celebrations
The current queen consort of the Netherlands, 55 years old, was received to the rhythm of 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA
Barcelona"Love knows no borders": this was the banner that Queen Máxima of the Netherlands held up this Saturday during the multitudinous party and demonstration of Amsterdam's Pride Day, which made her the first European queen to participate in and lead a march for the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community.
The consort of King Willem-Alexander decided to take a break from her holidays to attend the first day of Pride Day at Vondelpark in Amsterdam, where she was welcomed by the crowd to the rhythm of Dancing Queen, by the Swedish quartet ABBA. Also present at the march was the city's mayor, Femke Halsema. During the speech Máxima of the Netherlands gave, she urged attendees to support each other and questioned the lack of global progress in LGTBIQ+ rights. "Being able to be yourself and love who you want: isn't that what should be considered normal?", she posed.
Before the inauguration ceremony and the march, the queen also visited the stands of the Sport Pride and Youth Pride organizations. The former promotes a sporting world where everyone can be themselves, and the latter tries to ensure that young people have a safe and inclusive space during the two weeks of Pride Day celebrations, which this year coincides with the 25th anniversary of the first gay wedding in Amsterdam and which, according to forecasts, will bring together one million people.
A monarchy in favor of tolerance
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands' presence at this edition of Pride Day is part of a line of work that the Dutch Royal House has maintained for over a decade. In 2013, Máxima officially supported the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, while her husband, King Willem-Alexander, visited the headquarters of the Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum (COC), the world's oldest active LGBTIQ+ rights advocacy organization, in 2016 to mark its 70th anniversary.
In the rest of the European royal houses, there have been similar gestures, although not always as explicit as Queen Máxima's. The most committed are the Nordic ones: Haakon and Mette-Marit of Norway attended a Pride event in Oslo in 2019, and in Denmark, Queen Mary has participated in initiatives of the community for years. In the United Kingdom, King Charles III joined London's Pride Day for the first time in 2025 and shared a video in which the royal guard performed the song Pink Pony Club, by Chappell Roan, at Buckingham.
