While many Christianists claim that the Nazi regime never targeted or persecuted gays - and extreme homophobe, Scott Lively of Abiding Truth Ministries even claims that gays were responsible for the rise of the Nazi regime and Holocaust in his lunatic fable the Pink Swaztika - true historians know that gays were, in fact, targeted by the Nazi regime and tens of thousands died at their hands. In recognition of this reality (I know, Christianists have a real problem with grasping reality), a memorial to the tens of thousands of homosexuals persecuted under the Nazis has been errected in Berlin's central Tiergarten park. Here are some highlights from a Reuters story on the memorial:
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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany unveiled a monument to the tens of thousands of homosexuals persecuted under the Nazis, whose laws were used to prosecute gay men for a generation after World War Two. Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is openly gay, hailed the grey, concrete memorial as a long overdue acknowledgement of the repression of homosexuals, 50,000 of whom were convicted by Nazi courts during Adolf Hitler's 12-year dictatorship. "The monument consecrated today is a reminder to us of the horrors of the past and draws our attention to the degree of discrimination that currently exists," Wowereit said.
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The 600,000 euro ($950,000) cube in Berlin's central Tiergarten park stands opposite the monument to the 6 million European Jews murdered by the Nazis, and was designed by the Danish-Norwegian pairing of Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. Nazi authorities ordered the castration of some gay men, and sent thousands more to concentration camps, many of whom were murdered or died from hunger and disease. "The rehabilitation of those people who were convicted under Nazi laws must therefore be the next step."
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