| Re: Monument to homosexual victims of Nazis unveiled
the individual politics of the monument are incidental to its meaning. people are perfectly capable of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, if that's even what happened. Europeans are extremely supportive of homosexuality, it's hardly unlikely that the monument has no broad public sentiment. Regardless, there are other monuments to the nazi persecution of homosexuals that were created without any extenuating political circumstances.
the reality is that the right doesn't like monuments like this because it forces people to confront the human cost of their kind of violent prejudice. it's easier to maintain the legitimacy of anti-gay stances for "religious" or "cultural" reasons when there isn't a broad public awareness of the logical conclusion of that position. Jim Crow in the south wasn't killed by politicians or laws, it was killed by television. when people in America who possessed nominally racist or pro-segregation positions (or at least some sort of apathy) were confronted nightly with the reality of southern race relations on the nightly news, the situation changed faster then it had in 50 years.
awareness of the evil of that kind of bigotry is what will end it. for those who practice such bigotry it is vital to suppress the historical truth of anti-homosexual purges.
nazis didn't hate homosexuals for religious reasons, however many of their reasons were very similar to the right's current position. Decrying the "corruption" of traditional values and "the family", as well as portraying homosexuality as part of a broader leftist plot foisted upon "the volk" by the conniving intellectuals.
the very fact that people who will will in no way be impacted by this monument merely because it visibly supports an idea provides evidence for my position. if people who don't want this monument were motivated by rationality they wouldn't care. it has no impact upon them. if they're motivated by a desire to repress the reality of their position, or shear malevolence towards homosexuals, obviously it's of great import. |