Radio Netherlands reports that Noordhoff, the country's largest publisher of school textbooks, is planning to feature gay and lesbian couples in the assignments, questions and examples it uses in its teaching material.

Ten years ago, Linda de Haan's children's book Koning en Koning (King & King) created a stir in the Netherlands. In the book a gay crown prince refuses to marry a princess but still wants to become king. In the end there is a fairytale wedding between two princes who live happily ever after. It was later translated into English and published in the US where some called for it to be banned.

Radio Netherlands:

In a radio interview, the firm's publishing director Frans Grijzenhout explained that while children have been taught about homosexuality in subjects such as biology and history for some time, the family situations presented in general teaching materials have always focused on mothers and fathers. He says it could now soon be same-sex couples doing the shopping in the examples presented to arithmetic pupils.

Mr Grijzenhout compares the development to the introduction of people from different ethnic backgrounds in school textbooks. The publisher argues that it is very important for school materials to reflect all aspects of Dutch society and to present homosexuality to children in a way that is natural and recognisable.

It will be a few years before gay and lesbian couples make their print debut, but they will be introduced more quickly in electronic material. The publisher notes that while teaching materials in the Netherlands are subject to government supervision, publishers have a relatively high degree of freedom in determining the content of their books.

The German Press Agency (DPA) (via the Deccan Herald) quoted Frans Grijzenhout, director of the Noordhof Uitgeverij publishing house as saying: "At the moment schoolbooks do not reflect life here."

"When a textbook deals with a family going on holiday, for example, the accompanying drawing will show a father, a mother and children. But there are other types of families."

DPA also reported:

In future, Noordhof's books will reflect the existence of same-sex parents in Holland. The country's schoolbooks already deal with Holland's multicultural society with depictions of Muslim girls wearing headscarves, says Grijzenhout. "In the same way we intend to bring homosexuality to children's attention."

Holland's association for the Integration of homosexuals has welcomed the move. It says the "hetero-normality in schoolbooks" should have been done away with long ago. For a long time the association has been observing a "decline in tolerance towards homosexuals" in Holland.

Homosexuality has a high profile in Holland but the number of attacks on gay men and women is on the rise. Even in Amsterdam homosexual couples have reported they feel less safe than in the past. 

Many of the attackers are young men with Muslim immigrant backgrounds. The association for the Integration of Homosexuals says that makes it all the more important for schoolbooks to "show male couples and female couples as completely normal."