What sets Generation Z apart from other generations? What drives today’s youth, and what keeps them awake at night? No one can tell us better than Gen Z themselves. That's why we are portraying 24 students from Radboud University. In this episode: Maarten van Kesteren, 21, European Law, is happy being gay.

‘This year I went to the Pride in Amsterdam for the first time. I was talking to my younger brother about it beforehand: Do we really still need this kind of Pride event? Surely we don’t need to all be standing on a boat in leather pants to be accepted? Of course, it is wonderful that everyone in my family agrees; it’s really no big deal that I’m gay. But I still wanted to go. And I have to say: it did make me emotional.

Amnesty International, for example, also had a boat, but an empty one. There was just a text on it, about how it is not a party in all countries as it is in the Netherlands. Because LGBTQIA+ people are threatened or discriminated against in lots of places around the world. In Amsterdam, the police, the fire brigade and the Ministry of Defence all had their own boats to show that gays were welcome. I liked that.

I actually rarely get negative responses to my homosexuality. But I understand that this has to do with the bubble I’m in. Nijmegen, the university… If you live in a village, things can already be very different. I got yelled at once for putting my hand on a boy’s back. Of course I can avoid these kinds of confrontations, but I can also think: if I believe it should be normal for men to walk down the street holding hands, I should make it visible too.’