(by Ida Bini) (ANSA) - NEW YORK, MAY 16 - May 17 is the international day against homophobia and all forms of sexual discrimination, and it is an opportunity to discover the symbolic places of the fight for homosexual rights and the monuments that bear witness to discrimination and violence. Let's start in New York: at 53 Christopher Street there is Stonewall Inn, one of the most famous gay clubs in Manhattan, in Greenwich Village. Here on June 27, 1969, the police broke in, beating up and arresting dozens of patrons, who defended themselves; the clashes lasted a couple of hours and in the following evenings they resumed with hundreds of people gathered to demonstrate. The symbol of the "Stonewall riots" was Sylvia Rivera, a transgender girl who first rebelled by throwing a bottle at the police. It happened in Greenwich Village,heart of the American counterculture favored by the hippie community and where a year later, in memory of the Stonewall riots, the first Gay Pride was organized, initially called "Christopher Street Liberation Day March".
Since then the homosexual movement began a militant phase and the Gay Pride parades spread to many other cities: in Los Angeles for the first time the street of the demonstration was cordoned off, just like in a real march.
Also in New York are the iconic places of the movement: Langston Hughes House, in Harlem, is the home of the African American poet and writer who always kept his homosexuality hidden, but who today is instead one of the symbols for the international gay movement. Still in Greenwich Village is the Protestant Church which has made the struggle for homosexual rights its greatest challenge. Not far away, the Stonewell Inn, which President Obama named a national monument in 2016, and East Second Street's Star House, where Sylvia Rivera founded an organization to protect homeless transgender youth, deserve a visit.
The city of Philadelphia is also an icon of the homosexual rights movement: it is the capital of the global Equality Forum and PrideFest America, all events dedicated to the emancipation and equality of the LGBT community. And that the city has always been an example of tolerance is witnessed since 1682 by its founder, the English Quaker William Penn, who wanted to make it the "city of brotherly love". San Francisco is famous for the Castro district, home to one of the largest gay communities in the world. From the 1920s to the 1970s it was the homeland of indulgence and liberal thought and hosted unconventional characters and artists. Among the symbolic places of the LGBT community there are, among the many, places such as Spec's, famous in the past for the clandestine resale of alcoholic beverages but also as a LGBT club,Asia SF and the Castro theater.
In Great Britain the 1984 meeting between a gay activist group and the Welsh miners on strike against Chatcher was historic; is a milestone in the history of civil rights: since then it was the miners' union that pushed the British Labor party to embrace the cause of the LGBT community. Here are the iconic places not to be missed: in London the base of the activists was Gay's the Word, a small bookshop in the Bloomsbury district where texts of English counterculture are still bought. To raise money for the miners, the LGSM (Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners) organized a concert at the Electric Ballroom in Camden High Street, one of the temples of London music; still in the Camden district there are still some of the clubs that hosted the clandestine entertainment of London gays between the 70s and 80s.Manchester is worth a visit the People's History Museum which holds the archives of the Lgsm with photos and documents on the encounter between gays and miners that changed the course of the civil rights movement in Great Britain.
In Berlin, Germany, already in 1897 the sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, to mobilize public opinion against discrimination, had founded with a group of intellectuals (including Herman Hesse and Thomas Mann) the scientific-humanitarian committee WHK, considered the first organized group in history. of the homosexual movement. During World War II, his closest collaborator, KurtHiller, was interned in a concentration camp and together with him Jews, Roma, Sinti and Jehovah's Witnesses were victims of Nazi persecution; homosexuals and lesbians were branded with a pink triangle for men and black for women. To remember their tragedy in the Tiergarten park of the German capital there is a monument, a large concrete cube, with a video that projects gay and lesbian couples as they hiss.Frankfurter Engel is the memorial dedicated to the persecution of homosexuals located in the Klaus Mann square in Frankfurt.
These memorials are actually found almost everywhere: from Montevideo in Uruguay, where on the pink granite of the monument there is the phrase "Honrar la diversidad es honrar la vida", to Trieste which has decided to commemorate the homosexuals persecuted during the Nazi-fascism in the Risiera di San Sabbath. Also in Bologna, in the gardens of Villa Cassarini there is the first memorial created in Italy, inaugurated in 1999 for the 45th anniversary of the liberation from Nazi-Fascism. SanFrancisco, on the other hand, is among the best known monuments: it is made up of 15 pink granite pillars in memory of the victims and is located in the Pink Triangle Park in Castro. In the Parc de laCiutadella in Barcelona, the monument to the victims has engraved the phrase "In memory of gay,lesbians and transsexuals who have endured persecution and repression over the course of history. "Even in Alaska, in Anchorage, there is a relieving monument while in Sydney a large pink triangle stands out in Green Park in front of the Jewish Museum. The one in Amsterdam, the Jewish Museum. Homomonument, is a memorial made with three triangles that make up a larger one and the tip indicates AnnaFrank's house. Finally there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, one of the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have civil unions between people of the same sex were recognized in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (ANSA) .Even in Alaska, in Anchorage, there is a relieving monument while in Sydney a large pink triangle stands out in the Green Park in front of the Jewish Museum. The one in Amsterdam, the Homomonument, is a memorial made with three triangles that make up a larger one and the tip indicates AnnaFrank's house. Finally, there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, among the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have recognized civil unions between people of the same sex in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, we visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (HANDLE).Even in Alaska, in Anchorage, there is a relieving monument while in Sydney a large pink triangle stands out in the Green Park in front of the Jewish Museum. The one in Amsterdam, the Homomonument, is a memorial made with three triangles that make up a larger one and the tip indicates AnnaFrank's house. Finally, there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, among the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have recognized civil unions between people of the same sex in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, we visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (HANDLE).it is a relieving monument while in Sydney a large pink triangle stands out in the Green Park in front of the Jewish Museum. The one in Amsterdam, the Homomonument, is a memorial made with three triangles that make up a larger one and the tip indicates AnnaFrank's house. Finally, there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, among the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have recognized civil unions between people of the same sex in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, we visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (HANDLE).it is a relieving monument while in Sydney a large pink triangle stands out in the Green Park in front of the Jewish Museum. The one in Amsterdam, the Homomonument, is a memorial made with three triangles that make up a larger one and the tip indicates AnnaFrank's house. Finally, there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, among the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have recognized civil unions between people of the same sex in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, we visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (HANDLE).Finally, there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, among the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have recognized civil unions between people of the same sex in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, we visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (HANDLE).Finally, there is a symbolic place to visit: Denmark, among the first countries to have fought for rights and the first to have recognized civil unions between people of the same sex in 1989. In Copenhagen, called the rainbow city, we visited the Soho district which this year hosts World Pride with the Swedish Malmoe from 12 to 22 August to celebrate equality and human rights. (HANDLE).