Sex is everywhere and nowhere. Statistics show that masturbation and coital sex vie for a first place in terms of which is most prevalent. When it comes to cities, however, the media give the impression that sex work and homosexual intercourse are most prevalent and that non-commercial heterosex and masturbation seldom occur. ‘Ordinary’ heterosexuality remains invisible precisely because it sets the standard, also in cities. It is still seen as natural behaviour and a private matter, and this is the most important reason that the other forms appear more in public as ‘deviations’ and are discriminated against. Because sex is considered private and natural, politics rarely has anything clear to say about it.

Urban citizenship has many faces: it is about culture, sports, economics, politics, gender and also sexuality. The facts refute the idea that eroticism is not a public matter. Sexuality is in many ways a matter of citizenship – the most important ways in which this is the case are briefly summarised in the first part of this essay. The second part of this article is about the consequences that sexual citizenship has for cities and the policy of ‘city branding’, such as presenting the city as gay-friendly in order to attract creative companies and ‘pink money’.

Public life

To begin with, there are official institutions that make or break sexual citizenship. Among such institutions are the sex laws which until the end of the 19th century were few and included legal articles on rape, indecent exposure and the promotion of debauchery of minors (then 21 years old was the age threshold). In 1886, the Dutch law was beefed up with an age limit of 16 years and an article against pornography; in 1911, the age limit for homosexual contacts was raised to 21 years and articles on prostitution, abortion and contraceptives were introduced. The sexual revolution led to the abolition or loosening of the sex laws from 1970 onwards, but since 1990 the focus throughout the world has once again been directed at strengthening legislation on such crimes as ‘extreme’ and digital pornography, sex between and with young people, sex work and bestiality.