TU Delft Pride Boat was a success. What now?

People with a TU Delft network on LinkedIn could not have missed that TU Delft joined the Amsterdam Canal Parade, Pride Amsterdam’s boat parade, for the first time. ‘Impressive and beautiful’ wrote Carola de Vree, the Communications Director, that evening. ‘A fantastic atmosphere on the boat’ remembers Leon Hombergen, co-founder of TrueU, the LGBTQIA+ network at TU Delft. Colourfully dressed students and staff members, laughing faces, and a boat inscribed with the words Engineering TU Love on the shared photos.

Julien van Campen, TrueU Chair and Assistant Professor, needed a little time to recover. ‘The impact of some things is so big that they are hard to understand. Even now, a couple of days later, I still feel like I’m in a dream’, he wrote at the start of an emotional and personal LinkedIn post (in Dutch), that ends with words of hope for the future.

Professional structure

What is the status of that hope now, a month after that euphoric day? Has anything been turned into action? Van Campen says yes. He believes that having a boat has set a larger programme in motion, or at least has speeded it up. The Diversity Office has hired a trainee who will go through the systems and improve the pronouns. A new diversity policy is also being drawn up. Further, on the eve of its tenth anniversary TrueU is ready to professionalise. The network wants to go forward as an association with members.

‘Canal Parade was a strong and positive sign to students’

TrueU will also hold a symposium on 21 October to look back at and learn from being part of Canal Pride. In mid-September everyone on the boat will receive a questionnaire to assess how they experienced the event and what they think of diversity and inclusion at TU Delft.

Visibility of the queer community

Van Campen sees that much has improved over the years. “Twenty-five years ago, I was a first year student and was deep in the closet. I lived close to DWH (the TU Delft Working Group for Homosexuality, Eds.). It was a strong male culture. Heterosexuality was the norm. There were recruitment posters showing men’s hands trying to open a bra with the message that you can improve your technical skills at TU Delft. I had one teacher who was clearly homosexual, but who did not act as a role model. There was simply no attention paid to it, while you are lecturing as a 3D person. I try to do things differently and try to normalise homosexuality. I do this by casually saying what my husband and I did last the weekend. I could have benefited from someone who did this.”

But Van Campen too feels the changing times in which there is less acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community and in which less tolerance seems to be accepted. His wish is that TU Delft keeps diversity and inclusion high on the agenda and regularly takes part in the Canal Parade “for the visibility of the queer community here and as a strong positive signal to students”. The arrival of the new Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl in January 2026 is a hopeful sign for TrueU, says Van Campen. Bijl is currently still rector at the University of Leiden. “She openly shared her support for the LGBTQI+ network and inaugurated it. We are very happy with her appointment.”