Monument in memory of gays, lesbians, and transgender people who were repressed.

Barcelona,Monument in memory of gays, lesbians, and transgender people who were repressed.Spain
Monument in memory of gays, lesbians, and transgender people who were repressed.
Passeig de Picasso, 1, 08003, Barcelona, Spain
The monument in memory of repressed gays, lesbians, and transgender people is a monument erected on March 21, 2011 in the Parque de la Ciudadela by the City Council of Barcelona (Spain).

Design

The design was done by the Municipal Institute of Parks and Gardens. It consists of an inverted triangle made with stone from Montjuïc mountain, placed horizontally on a flowerbed in the Fontseré i Mestre Gardens, next to one of the entrances of the Ciutadella Park. A pink metal strip surrounds the triangle as a border, whose base measures four meters and the two remaining sides measure three meters each.

The design of the monument, like others in Europe, evokes the triangle that was used to mark homosexual prisoners in Nazi extermination camps, which was later adopted by the LGBT movement as a reclaiming symbol. In the town of Sitges, in the same province of Barcelona, there is the sculpture to the homosexual collective, the first commemorative monument of its kind in Spain, placed in 2006.

Origin and location

The installation of a monument to the LGBT community in a central space in the city is one of the proposals for permanent recognition and visibility actions in the Municipal Plan for the LGBT Community 2010-2015 of the Civil Rights Council of the City Council of Barcelona. According to the Councilor for Civil Rights, the objective of the monument is to "promote the visibility of a diverse and plural society that has a place for everyone," and it has elements of historical memory by expressing the desire to recognize "the history, trajectory, and efforts made by communities that have traditionally been more vulnerable, and publicly thank them for their efforts in the construction of our model of society".

In December 2010, it was suggested to install the monument in front of the Sagrada Familia, as it was a central location that was already being renovated. However, the press release issued by the city council generated controversy and strong opposition from the Popular Party, which was corrected on the same day. The spokesman for the Gay Liberation Front of Catalonia defended its location in Ciutadella Park, where in 1991, six neo-Nazi skinheads beat transgender woman Sonia Rescalvo to death.

Finally located in Ciutadella Park, more than two hundred people gathered at its inauguration on March 20, 2011, with representation from all political parties present in the City Council of Barcelona, except for the Popular Party. The mayor of the city, Jordi Hereu, highlighted that the monument is a "declaration of intentions" of the city, positioning itself at the forefront of claims for "real equality" without distinctions based on people's sexual orientation.