Free Willie while racking some balls

Amsterdam – In an Amsterdam bar, six men cluster around the pool table arguing good-naturedly about how to rack the balls. Everyone is stark naked from the ankle up: welcome to Free Willie.

The only naked bar in Amsterdam catering for the LGBTQ+ community, Free Willie’s punters and managers see it as a safe haven in a city where tolerance – and fun – is in decline.

Located in a beautiful canalside house, the interior decor is unashamedly phallic. Brass penis-shaped knobs jut proudly out from walls to hang hats and clothes. The bar area is illuminated with neon penis lights.

Almost everyone wears shoes and more prudish customers can sport underwear, but “we discourage that”, laughed owner Richard Keldoulis, a genial 61 year old originally from Sydney.

“We try to get them all naked. Often you see that if everyone is naked, the one or two holdouts eventually take their underwear off too,” he said.

Throwing off clothes helps people throw off their inhibitions, he said. “People are definitely more open and relaxed... I think there’s less attitude.”

Manager Anne Rodermond, 45, said stripping off actually “breaks down barriers”. “There’s no body shaming and it’s very comfortable and OK to be naked with each other,” she said.

And it’s not about sex, insists Keldoulis, who also owns a sauna and nightclub, although Free Willie does offer dark areas and side sections with thick red velvet curtains for privacy.

“The whole idea is just to hang out at the bar and be naked with other people,” he said.

Thursday night, when AFP visited, is pool night at Free Willie. Cue many jokes about balls and pockets. Winner gets the coveted “nutcracker” trophy and the €50 (about R1 000) top prize.

Two pool players, Erik de Roo and Philip Bodifee, laughed when asked about the sexual element of the bar.

De Roo, a 67-year-old retired flight attendant, described the bar as “sexually tickling”. “You see other men naked and you think, well, you know,” he giggled.

“For me, it’s more about freedom than sexuality,” said his partner Bodifee, 56. “But hey, I’m not blind, so I do get inspired.”

Away from the gaiety, there is a deadly serious point: everyone said the bar offered the community a safe place amid rising intolerance and even violence.

For decades, the Netherlands has been seen as a byword for liberalism and a haven for the LGBTQ+ community, with Amsterdam the inner sanctum of anything-goes hedonism.

But times have changed. The Netherlands dropped to 14th place in Europe in the Rainbow Index, which measures gay rights across the continent, with concerns growing over hate crimes. –