In Jordan, one of the few countries in the Middle East where same-sex relations do not incur a criminal penalty, the government has initiated a crackdown on LGBTQ+ activists in a coordinated campaign of intimidation.
According to a report released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday, interviews with 13 prominent LGBTQ+ activists in the country reveal tactics of intimidation and abuse forcing activists to cease their advocacy work or flee the country altogether.
Russia’s Supreme Court declared all LGBTQ+ supporters as “extremists.” Now a Russian company is tracking queer-friendly businesses.
In the past, Jordan has promoted itself as a modernizing influence among Middle Eastern nations compared with its neighbors. The country’s sodomy laws, dating back to British rule, were repealed in 1951.
“Jordanian authorities have launched a coordinated attack against LGBT rights activists, aimed at eradicating any discussion around gender and sexuality from the public and private spheres,” said Rasha Younes, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Security forces’ intimidation tactics and unlawful interference in LGBT organizing have driven activism further underground and forced civil society leaders into an impossible reality: severe self-censorship or fleeing Jordan.”
The report details how Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID) and the Preventive Security Department of the Public Security Directorate have interrogated LGBTQ+ activists about their work, intimidated them with threats of violence, arrest, and prosecution, and forced activists to shut down their organizations.
Some activists have been kidnapped without legal cause and interrogated overnight.
Other tactics have included smearing activists online based on their sexual orientation and deploying other social media users to out activists online and incite violence against them.
In addition to interviewing 13 LGBTQ+ rights activists and others associated with the Jordanian LGBTQ+ community, HRW reviewed statements by government officials, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals, as well as visual media provided by activists documenting incidents of online harassment against them in public social media posts.
One victim, the director of an unnamed LGBTQ+ center, says he was forced into a car by authorities and interrogated overnight. GID agents called his parents and outed him, he said. Others detailed the forced cancellation of events in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and multiple instances of online harassment.
All of the activists targeted described the intimidation as a serial effort, with each of them summoned for interrogation multiple times. Three of the activists described interrogations by the governor of Amman, who interviewed them after they preemptively canceled the screening of a film depicting gay men.
Two organizations’ directors said they were forced to shut down their offices and flee the country following official intimidation.
“We arrived in a foreign country without any plan or support,” said one organization leader who fled with his boyfriend. “We had no choice. Since I fled Jordan, I consistently wake up screaming in terror. It has been the hardest experience I have ever been through.”
One LGBTQ+ activist who has remained in Jordan described her current reality: “Merely existing in Amman has become terrifying.”
As Republican-led legislatures have limited or banned access to gender-affirming care for trans people across the country, states like New Mexico are witnessing a large influx of “gender refugees” seeking healthcare.
Over the past two-plus years, nearly two dozen states have instituted limits or bans on gender-affirming health care for trans youth and adults. While trans people in red states seek out alternative sources of care and places to live, larger states and metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York can prove prohibitively expensive.
So smaller states like New Mexico, Minnesota, Colorado, Vermont, and Washington, with prohibitions on restricting gender-affirming health care and a lower cost of living, are attracting a crush of trans patients seeking care.
They’re being met with waiting lists.
“I feel really excited and proud to be here in New Mexico, where it’s such a strong stance and such a strong refuge state,” Molly McClain, a family medicine physician and medical director of the Deseo clinic, which serves transgender youth at the University of New Mexico Hospital, told CBS News. “And I also don’t think that that translates to having a lot more care available.”
The strain is affecting new patients and longtime New Mexico residents, as well.
“With the influx of gender refugees, wait times have increased to the point that my doctor and I have planned on bi-yearly exams,” said Felix Wallace, a 30-year-old trans man and longtime resident.
Anne Withrow, a 73-year-old trans woman and Albuquerque resident for over 50 years, sought care from a new provider at the University of New Mexico after her doctor retired.
“They said, ‘We have a waiting list.’ A year later they still had a waiting list.”
A year after that, Withrow managed to get care from a local community-based health center.
As of October, UNM’s Truman Health Services clinic still wasn’t taking new patients.
At the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, T. Michael Trimm says the center used to field two or three calls a month from people out-of-state considering a move.
“It has steadily increased to a pace of one or two a week,” he said.
“We’ve had folks from as far away as Florida and Kentucky and West Virginia,” as well as families in Texas “looking to commute here for care, which is a whole other can of worms, trying to access care that’s legal here, but illegal where they live.”
In New Mexico, the problem is compounded by a physician shortage.
A 2022 report revealed New Mexico lost a staggering 30% of its physicians in the previous four years. The state is on track to have the second-largest physician shortage in the country by 2030, with the oldest physician workforce.
Despite the obstacles, Trimm says “trans folks can be very resilient.”
While a waitlist isn’t ideal, he says it’s easier to endure “than the idea that you maybe could never get the care.”
In 2008, Dan Leveille, 35, was studying computer science at the Rochester Institute of Technology when California voters passed Proposition 8, eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. It was a sucker punch to the queer community, including Leveille, who found himself wanting to bring order to how he thought about LGBTQ+ rights in the US.
His solution was Equaldex, a passion project that visualizes the state of queer rights not only at home but around the world. The site has become a trusted resource for governments, the media, and LGBTQ+ travelers everywhere.
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LGBTQ Nation spoke with Leveille about Equaldex from his home in Los Angeles.
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LGBTQ Nation: What inspired you to come up with an LGBTQ+ rights visualization tool?
Dan Leveille: When the Prop 8 stuff happened, I got pretty interested in it. And then there were a lot of states that were legalizing same-sex marriage, and a lot of laws were changing. And I remember at some point I was like, “Wait, did that state legalize it? When did that happen?” And I’m like, “Wow, I wish there was like some sort of site that showed all of these changes, like, a map.”
I launched it in 2014.
LGBTQ Nation: How did you envision it being used by others as you were building it?
DL: I first imagined it for my own use just tracking all the changes. But the number of countries that criminalize being gay, the number of countries that, you know, jailed people or even have the death penalty, that stuff is really compelling. And maybe the LGBTQ activists know this, but the general public might not. And I think bringing to light those facts is very important. This could kind of put pressure and visibility on the parts of the world that aren’t progressing.
LGBTQ Nation: What are some of the unexpected ways that Equaldex has been used since you put it up?
DL: One thing that is very obvious, probably, but just didn’t occur to me is how it’s used as a travel guide. That wasn’t immediately obvious to me, but it makes perfect sense. There’s been a lot of interest from travel agencies so that travelers will know, “Oh, this country you’re visiting, these laws, you might want to be careful or reconsider.”
General Electric, they use Equaldex data for some of their internal systems for traveling for employees. It makes sense because companies want to be careful about where they’re sending their employees, especially if there are laws against being gay.
LGBTQ Nation: Does General Electric throw you some bucks for using Equaldex?
DL: No, it’s generally not really a big deal to me. If a company wants to apply this data, I don’t have any issue with it. I like keeping the service free, just in principle.
LGBTQ Nation: GE could make a donation for your trouble.
DL: Yeah, for sure.
LGBTQ Nation: What’s the most LGBTQ+-friendly country on the planet?
DL: Currently I have this system on the site called the Equality Index, which ranks legal rights and public opinion. It’s a newer metric that I added. The countries with the highest ranking right now are Iceland, as number one, and Denmark and Norway. Malta, the Netherlands and Canada are up there.
LGBTQ Nation: And what’s the country you identify as the most hostile to LGBTQ+ identity?
DL: If you’re looking at the Equality Index, the Middle East and Africa are generally the worst in terms of both the laws and the public opinion there.
Dan Levielle The LGBT Equality Index on Equaldex
LGBTQ Nation: You’re looking at the data pretty much every day. What are some of the trends that you can point out?
DL: That’s a good question. Outside of the Middle East and Africa, there’s definitely a lot of progress being made overall. I focus a lot on the US, and polling has shown overwhelmingly that, you know, things are moving positively in terms of the public opinion. Even Republicans and religious groups, they’re moving to being more open.
LGBTQ Nation: In the US, do you see the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in red states as an anomaly, or is there anything in the data that indicates maybe those right-wing Republicans are on to something?
DL: Some of the US polls have shown that while it is becoming more accepted, it also is starting to polarize the more people are being exposed to it. So they have a lot of opinions on it. You know, you see things like drag queen bans and all those book bans and stuff, so people might form an opinion, whereas before, maybe they didn’t have an opinion. It’s interesting. We’re seeing a lot of progress in the US, but there are definitely some laws that are going backward. Hopefully it doesn’t continue that way.
LGBTQ Nation: The site would be a big undertaking for anyone, let alone somebody who’s just doing it as a passion project. Did you ever think, “I’m way over my head on this?”
DL: Yeah, definitely. Especially with big publications and even some governments and organizations that reference Equaldex. So when I see, like, the UN referencing it in one of their reports, I’m like, God, it’s a lot of pressure. Fortunately, I built Equaldex in a way where I don’t need to change everything myself, with such a big community of users who are contributing.
LGBTQ Nation: Tell us about those volunteers.
DL: When I first started Equaldex, there were a lot of people who were very interested in the project, and I got a handful of people who were just super passionate about it. They were super crucial in the first six months to a year of the site. Like, we had all these countries with no data, and people were just going in, adding all the laws. We’ve added a Discord community, as well, that has been really great at attracting editors and moderators.
LGBTQ Nation: Who pays for all of this?
DL: I pay for it myself. It’s not super expensive to run. And I share the cost with a pretty successful gaming app I run called Dododex, which is a companion app for the game ARK. And that helps to pay for software and Chat GPT to help program and stuff.
LGBTQ Nation: What’s the participation rate in some of those red countries for people who help out with the site?
DL: It’s very low. It’s challenging, especially when there are language barriers, too. But in really red countries, those users probably don’t want to publicly join a service like Equaldex, for reasons you can imagine. Fortunately, there are a lot of international organizations, research organizations who dig into the laws and maybe expose some of the things that are happening there, and we do have a handful of contributors who are from countries more familiar with those places.
LGBTQ Nation: Who are some of your go-to’s for the information you’re putting up?
DL: When we’re sourcing laws we try to get to the actual government site that shows what the law is. Unfortunately, sometimes what the government is saying is different than what they’re actually doing. We reference some big LGBT organizations like ILGA. The UN has some great resources exposing things in these homophobic countries. And of course, you know, reputable sources, the BBC, CNN, sites like yours who are reporting.
In terms of like, public opinion, there are a lot of really great organizations like Gallup that are always our go-to’s in terms of public opinion data.
LGBTQ Nation: What’s new on the site?
DL: I am working on a new feature that will — I hate to call it, like, a Yelp for LGBTQ rights, but it’s kind of that same idea where you’ll be able to share your opinion of the state or the province or the country that you lived in and share how comfortable you were about being open in public. What are politicians like? Are there out celebrities? Things like that. If you’ve lived there you have more experience, and it helps people who are traveling, so they can be like, “Okay, definitely don’t hold hands with my partner in public.” And even like, hotel reservations. In some countries you shouldn’t reserve a single bed with your partner in the same room. Stuff like that is good to know, and you might not think of it.
LGBTQ Nation: What’s been the most satisfying part of Equaldex for you so far?
DL: I think seeing the big publications and organizations use the site. There are a bunch of Ivy League schools that reference Equaldex for their students when they’re traveling. The UN, the UK Government, the US government, they’ve all read it and reference it. It makes me really proud, like, “Wow, this is something that people are very interested in.” So it kind of validates the work I’ve been doing for many years.
At a more personal level, hearing that people use it and it’s super helpful is super validating. When people say, like, “Oh, I always use it. Make sure to check Equaldex before you travel,” it’s really rewarding to hear it’s helpful to people in that way.
An LGBTQ+ rights group in Afghanistan is calling the international community’s acceptance of Taliban rule a “betrayal of humanity” and is demanding justice for queer people from the United Nations, human rights organizations, and countries that “claim to support human rights.”
Rainbow Afghanistan details a litany of abuses against the queer community by the Taliban, which returned to power two years ago as American forces withdrew from the country 20 years after the 9/11/2001 attacks.
“For homosexuals,” a Taliban judge said at the time, “there can only be two punishments: either stoning, or he must stand behind a wall that will fall down on him.”
Since then, members of the LGBTQ+ community have been mysteriously killed or disappeared, arrested, “tortured and sexually assaulted in prisons, and many were stoned to death in distant provinces and, in the worst case, sexually exploited,” the letter details, while “a large number of members of the LGBT community lost their lives due to suicide,” including lesbians and transgender women who have been “forced into marriage” against their will.
“The world has remained silent” in the face of “widespread and systematic crime against humanity,” the letter from Rainbow Afghanistan declares. “The eyes and ears of the world are not willing to see and hear.”
The group documents the abduction of at least ten members of their own organization at the hands of the Taliban, and describes the existence of “private prisons for members of the LGBT community in large provinces in parts of Afghanistan.”
“According to our findings, at least two transgender individuals under the age of 19 were transferred to one of these prisons after being identified by the Taliban in Herat, where they were tortured and raped.”
The group also describes a dangerous exodus of LGBTQ+ people from Afghanistan into neighboring countries like Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, where they’re subject to similar abuse at the hands of authorities.
“The suffocating political conditions and the criminalization of non-binary tendencies and identities in these countries have exposed them to the threat of deportation” back to Afghanistan.
The group is demanding action from the United Nations and others.
“We want the countless crimes of the Taliban against the LGBTQ community in Afghanistan to be investigated and documented, and its perpetrators should be held accountable in independent courts, and human rights, as stated in its charter, should not be limited to geographic boundaries, gender identities, and certain social groups,” the organization wrote of the U.N.
“We, the activists, ask the United Nations, human rights organizations, and countries of the world to break this annoying silence towards the LGBT community. We want to end the silence of the international community regarding these tragedies as soon as possible. We want justice for the LGBT community of Afghanistan to be raised and realized.”
Just months after coffee colossus Starbucks was accused of erasing Pride from store locations across the country, the company is being sued by a lesbian and gender non-conforming employee who claims she was passed over for promotion because she is “gay” and “looks like a boy.”
Jahmelia “Jay” Peters is suing Starbucks, claiming the company denied her a promotion at a White Plains, New York store despite previous experience in the role due to her sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression.
One store manager allegedly threw out Pride decorations rather than display them.
The store manager promoted a woman he was pursuing for sex instead, the suit claims.
The civil action, filed in New York Supreme Court, alleges unlawful discrimination and retaliation. Peters is seeking compensatory damages for lost wages and emotional distress, including back and front pay, as well as punitive damages for the manager’s “outrageous conduct.”
According to the complaint, Peters’ boss told store colleagues that she would not be promoted because she was “gay” and “looks like a boy.” Peters was subsequently fired while on break for questioning the manager’s decision.
Peters says she has yet to receive her final paycheck in what the suit characterizes as a final act of retaliation from the company.
The suit describes how a cisgender, straight female employee at the store whom the manager had taken an “inappropriate flirtatious interest in” was promoted to shift leader over Peters, despite having less experience and expressly stating that she did not want the promotion.
According to Peters’ lawyers, this was not the only woman in the store that the manager had sought to curry favor with in order to have a sexual relationship; he often shared intimate, flirtatious text messages with other straight female employees in the store.
“This is a human rights issue,” said Bennitta Joseph, Peters’ counsel with Joseph & Norinsberg LLC. “Ms. Peters was denied the civil right to fair treatment in the workplace based on her gender expression, identity, and her sexual orientation.”
The allegation comes just months after more than 3,500 Starbucks workers in 150 store locations went on strike in June, claiming regional managers in more than 100 Starbucks locations in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma shut down Pride displays after “consulting with upper leadership.”
Starbucks denied the allegations, saying it never asked any stores to remove their Pride decorations, and accused the union representing Starbucks employees, Starbucks Workers United, of spreading false information as a bargaining “tactic.”
On Tuesday, the City of Boston announced it will no longer require applicants for a marriage license to register their sex or gender identity.
It was a day that Boston’s director of policy and strategic initiatives Kimberley Rhoten, who identifies as nonbinary, has “eagerly awaited.
“Unfortunately for people like me, the certificate’s outdated and narrow gender markers were a glaring reminder that our city still had a long way to go in acknowledging our existence,” they said.
At a press conference, Rhoten was presented with the first new marriage license by Boston Registrar Paul Chong, who told them: “Your love makes the world a better place. It makes this city a better place.”
The change is part of a broader effort by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to address gender identity in city services.
“Our fundamental charge in public service is ensuring that our services and opportunities reach everyone, and that starts with affirming and supporting constituents of all identities,” Wu said announcing the change.
“This update to Boston marriage licenses is a huge step in building a City that is truly inclusive, and I’m excited to see how these critical changes for accessibility at City Hall serve Bostonians.”
The new gender awareness initiative outlines a strategy to address how Boston collects gender data, how it’s used, and what city services are impacted by it.
“Right now, we ask residents about gender identity to deliver key services,” an explainer on the city’s website reads. “But when we ask, we often aren’t using language that represents all gender identities and may not even need gender identity to deliver some of these services. We want to understand how to ask about gender identity in an accessible, affirming, and safe way.”
The marriage license update is one result.
According to Rhoten, the change will help to alleviate gender dysphoria among non-binary individuals and spare them from “having to pick from a list of limited, narrow, and delineated options.”
“And for those of us who change and grow, later identifying with a different gender than when we first got married, our marriage certificates no longer constrain us and can now reflect the love we hold without disrespecting who we’ve grown into and our new pronouns,” she said.
Rhoten asserted the new marriage license is “not just a win for the queer community. It’s a win for everyone who believes in the principles of fairness, equality, and equal access to our city’s services. It’s a win for Boston.”
In Blount County, Tennessee, local attorney general Ryan Desmond sent a letter Tuesday to organizers of a Pride event scheduled for Saturday, threatening them with prosecution for what he anticipates will be violations of Tennessee’s drag ban.
The chilling warning comes despite the fact a federal judge blocked the drag ban in June, ruling it unconstitutional.
That hasn’t stopped Desmond from claiming he has the authority to prosecute any drag performer who “appeals to a prurient interest,” in the words of the Adult Entertainment Act.
“It is certainly possible that the event in question will not violate any of the criminal statutes,” Desmond wrote in a three-page “notice” addressed to Blount Pride organizers and distributed to local law enforcement, “however if sufficient evidence is presented to this office that these referenced criminal statutes have been violated, our office will ethically and justly prosecute these cases in the interest of justice.”
The invitation to present “sufficient evidence” was shared with the Blount County sheriff and two local police chiefs.
The drag ban signed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) in early March prohibits “male or female impersonators” from appearing “on public property” or “in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.” The bill defines adult cabaret as adult-oriented performances “that feature topless dancers, go-go entertainers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators or similar entertainers.”
On June 2, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker, a Trump appointee, ruled the drag ban “is an unconstitutional restriction on speech.”
The suit seeking the injunction was filed against State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. Skrmetti maintains the injunction applies only to Shelby County, where the suit was filed. Desmond says he’s following Skrmetti’s lead in his claim the law is still valid everywhere else in the state.
“My legal analysis leads me to concur with the State Attorney General, both as to the constitutionality of the AEA as well as the applicability of the District Court’s order controlling only the District Attorney for the 30th Judicial District.”
Blount Pride 2023 is scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening at the Clayton Center for the Arts at Maryville College and will feature a headline performance by drag performer Flamy Grant, among other acts that could run afoul of the enjoined law.
College President Bryan Coker, another recipient of Desmond’s “notice,” said Blount Pride had agreed to conduct the event “in compliance with all applicable laws,” and he saw “no problem with the event going forward.”
In a memo to faculty and staff, Coker was more worried about “individuals and groups outside the college who are opposed to the Pride Festival and are planning to protest the event.”
Blount Pride board president Ari Baker said their organization will be filing suit with the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee in response to Desmond’s threat.
Florida’s State Board of Education has approved new penalties to enforce the state’s anti-transgender bathroom law.
Signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also running for his party’s presidential nomination in 2024, Florida’s House Bill 1521 went into effect in July. It requires people to use bathroom and changing facilities that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth and applies to public schools, universities, parks, prisons, and other government buildings but not to businesses and healthcare facilities. DeSantis has said the law will ensure women’s safety, based on the myth that trans people are violent sexual predators who prey on innocent women and children.
Students who speak out for LGBTQ+ rights say they face retaliation from hostile school administrations determined to silence them.
As The Hill reports, on Wednesday the DeSantis-appointed State Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a proposal outlining disciplinary measures for students and employees at state colleges who violate the law. The new rule requires the 28 public community and state colleges in the state’s college system, which is separate from the Florida university system, to update their student and employee codes of conduct to reflect the anti-trans law and establish disciplinary procedures for employees by April 1.
“Disciplinary actions may utilize a progressive discipline process that includes verbal warnings, written reprimands, suspension without pay, and termination,” the proposal states. “The disciplinary action taken should be based on the specific circumstances of the offense; however, a second documented offense must result in a termination.”
Schools are not required to provide unisex restrooms, and the requirements also apply to student housing. As The Hill notes, this will result in transgender and nonbinary students living in college dorms being unable to use restrooms that align with their gender identity.
The rule was met with opposition during the public comment period at Wednesday’s meeting. The mother of a transgender teenager said that the slate of anti-trans laws signed by DeSantisthis year has made her child fear for their life. A rising high school senior, they have opted not to apply to any colleges in Florida as a result.
Former Florida state Representative and current policy advisor at Equality Florida Carlos Guillermo Smith, who is running for state senate, said that the “new level of fear and intimidation” in the state has one goal: “to root transgender people out of the Florida College System.”
“It is death by a million cuts, where you just created such a toxic and hostile environment for trans people in our state that they no longer are going to want to call Florida home,” Smith told The Hill. “They’re just going to leave.”
Catholic schools in Worcester, Massachusetts have issued a new policy that orders students to use their names and pronouns assigned at birth and conduct themselves in a manner “consistent with their biological sex,” according to a statement issued by the local diocese on August 15.
The policy affects more than 5,000 students in 21 schools in the city 45 miles west of Boston.
While the guidance claims that bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity “will not be tolerated,” the policy goes on to say that “students may not advocate, celebrate or express same-sex attraction in such a way as to cause confusion or distraction in the context of Catholic school classes, activities or events.”
“We do not serve anyone’s greater good by falsifying the truth, for it is only the truth that frees us for the full life that God offers to each of us,” the diocese said.
The strict guidance stands in contrast to the spirit of statements issued by Pope Francis, who has asked “Who am I to judge?” when questioned about gay priests in the church.
Earlier this year, Pope Francis said, “Being homosexual isn’t a crime.”
Despite those sentiments, the diocese quotes Francis to argue in favor of the discriminatory policy.
“As Pope Francis notes, we must always respect the sacred dignity of each individual person, but that does not mean the Church must accept the confused notions of secular gender ideology.”
The new policy was approved by Bishop Robert J. McManus, well-known in Worcester for his religious orthodoxy.
Last year, McManus gained national attention for stripping the Jesuit-run Nativity School of Worcester of its Catholic designation after leaders there refused to lower Black Lives Matter and Pride flags.
The school serves primarily low-income boys of color in grades five through eight.
McManus argued in an open letter that the sentiments associated with the flags were “contrary to Catholic teaching.”
According to McManus, the Black Lives Matter banner had been co-opted by “factions which also instill broad-brush distrust of police and those entrusted with enforcing our laws,” while the Pride flag contradicted Catholic teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Flying the two flags sent “a mixed, confusing and scandalous message to the public about the Church’s stance on these important moral and social issues,” the letter read.
In Worcester, Joshua Croke, president of LGBTQ+ nonprofit Love Your Labels, called the bishop’s new policy both unsurprising and harmful.
“He has a long history of anti-LGBTQ practices and positions,” Croke told The New York Times.
The doctrinaire policy is an order for kids to “stay in the closet,” Croke said.
In Berlin last weekend, a vandal defaced the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under National Socialism with biblical quotations denouncing homosexuality before attempting to set fire to the concrete structure.
Overnight on Saturday, a security guard witnessed a man, still at large, throw a burning object at the memorial. The structure didn’t sustain any lasting damage.
Our activism was born in these forgotten papers—and lies—generated decades ago, retooled and weaponized for our time.
The concrete cube, erected in 2008 at the edge of Tiergarten Park near the main monument to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, features a small opening through which video of a same-sex couple kissing can be seen.
German police have opened an inquiry into the vandalism.
On the same night, another Holocaust memorial in Berlin was also the target of an arson attack.
An unknown assailant set fire to a “book box” containing reading material about the Nazi era, part of the “Platform 17” memorial honoring Jews sent to their deaths from the Grünewald train station.
An estimated 50,000 German Jews were deported to Nazi concentration and death camps at Riga, Warsaw, Auschwitz, and Theresienstadt through the station beginning in 1941.
Police said the display was almost entirely destroyed.
The LSVD German LGBTQ+ rights organization said in a statement it was “shocked by the incitement of hate” behind both incidents.
It noted that the Old Testament verse on the notes affixed to the LGBTQ+ monument, which linked the death penalty and homosexual sex, is “frequently abused for queer-hostile agitation.”
The memorial has been the object of vandalism in the past. Just nine months after the unveiling, the window revealing the same-sex embrace was smashed three times in back-to-back incidents.
Monument designers Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen have said the view to the kiss is at the heart of the memorial’s message.
“It was important to have direct imagery of a love scene, a passionate scene, an emotional scene between two same-sex persons, because that is the main problem in homophobia,” Elmgreen told the Associated Press in 2008. “You can get whatever rights, you can get acceptance on an abstract level, but they don’t want to look at us.”
Nazi Germany considered homosexuality an aberration and a threat to the German Reich. More than 50,000 LGBTQ+ Germans were convicted as criminals, with an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men sent to concentration camps.
