City Council Believes Annual Hooker’s Ball Gives Dutch Town A Bad Name

Imagine if the NYPD tried to clamp down on The Hookies, the annual awards show for rentboys where sex workers are given trophies for customer service? There’d be gay hell (and a soundbite from New York City Councilwoman Christine Quinn) to pay. But that’s exactly what officials in the Dutch city Schiedam are trying to do by refusing to grant a permit for Hoerenbal, or “Hooker’s Ball,” scheduled for Nov. 27. Originally the city council was supposedly cracking down on noise excess, but now they’ve acknowledged it’s all in a name: The council does not “want to ban anything,” it says in a statement. “We simply refused the [noise] exemption request because we thought the name of the event was inappropriate for our town, and we have informed the owner of our objections.” No matter: Organizers of Hoerenbal — “For sluts and pimps, tarts and vicars, drag queens, hustlers, gigolos and the insane” — plan on holding the event as planned. This year’s theme: Texas whorehouse.