On September 7, 2017, the Lesbian and Gay Federation of Berlin-Brandenburg (LSVD) unveiled a monument for the first homosexual emancipation movement. The memorial is composed of six thirteen-foot calla lilies in rainbow colors. The chosen flower, according to the organization, “has feminine and masculine blooms in one plant and is therefore a symbol for the normality of sexual and gender diversity in nature” (LSVD 2017). The monument was erected on the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Ufer, a promenade along Berlin's Spree River near the German chancellery. Its representation of the natural basis of gender and sexual diversity conveys the ideas of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the founders of the world's first homosexual rights organization, the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, in 1897. The colorful monument, according to the organization's newsletter, has “a positive and confident effect” (LSVD 2017). These are important features for a memorial...
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1 May 2018
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