LGBT writers in the Dutch-language area

LGBT writers in the Dutch-language area are writers from de Lage Landen, that is Flanders and the Netherlands, who were homosexual wrote for a homosexual audience wrote about homosexuality According to Gerrit Komrij qualifying for at least two of the above makes someone a gay author. The first of these authors owed much to the late 19th century decadent literature, with names like Georges Eekhoud in Belgium and Jacob Israël de Haan in the Netherlands. After the second world war Gerard Reve, and later Gerrit Komrij and Tom Lanoye became the leading names. Most of these LGBT writers are Dutch-language writers contributing to Dutch-language literature, some of them acquiring a place in the Canon of Dutch Literature. Before the last decades of the 19th century words like uranism, homosexual, sapphism, lesbian and transvestite didn't exist. Being called a true Sappho of Lesbos was a high compliment for female poets, without sexual connotations. Words like sodomy, pederast and hermaphrodite existed and had their Dutch-language counterpart, but only very partially covered what would become LGBT (Dutch equivalent: holebi) in a more modern understanding. Generally the older terms, most of all sodomy, had a negative connotation. Writing about these topics was usually either pornographic or in terms of condemnable (religious) sin. From the 19th century these subjects were also more often treated in medical science, which led to the more modern terminology. Authors writing in a positive manner about bonds between people of the same sex spoke about friendship (in Dutch: vriendschap). Such friendships could be qualified as romantic friendships. Whether there was a component of sexuality was unclear and if so, not outspoken. Friendship was certainly not always a euphemism for something more, nor even for Platonic love. A friendship was recorded between the writers Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken: they also wrote about the topic of true friendship.