Lex van Naerssen, Dutch gay studies pioneer, deceased

On May 27, Dr. A.X. (Lex) van Naerssen (Indonesia, March 9, 1941) passed away. He was not so much an activist, but foremost an opinion maker in scientific and gay activist circles. As a scientist at the Psychology department of the University of Utrecht, he made the subject Sexology relevant to the emancipation of homosexuala, pedophiles, and several other variations in the realm of sex.

Lex was a relaxed but hard worker. Besides teaching, he was also involved in empirical research, acted as a therapist, a witness-expert at court, published in "Homologie" (the ground-breaking Dutch gay studies magazine, still not on the web digitally), was on editorial staffs, and on the board of "Homologie" and the Brongersma Foundation. [...]

Lex was a brave scientist and a pioneer of sexual freethinking. He always kept in touch with his former students. In our last conservation, we regretted that a lot of research into safer sex is often seen as sexology research. We had different opinions on prevention. Lex often saw it as a civilizing offensive. He dined heartily, and ignored health advise, and possible because of that lost his eye sights two years prior to his death.

During his marriage to his wife, Lex was increasingly interested in boys, which led to a divorce. In the specialist journal for boy lovers, "Koinos," he published the very readable story about his own youth. In general, his tone was thoughtfully ironic, just as in his dairies. Hopefully, a carefully edited edition of his dairies will be published one day.

source: Article 'Lex van Naerssen, Dutch gay studies pioneer, deceased' by Janhuib Blans; Gay News, No. 300; August 2016