How a failed wreath-laying attempt gave birth to a new kind of activism within the LGBT movement
On 4 May 1970, fifty years ago, two members of the Amsterdam Homosexuality Youth Action Groups tried to lay a wreath during the 25th memorial of the Second World War, without permission. It was time to start commemorating the forgotten homosexual victims, too. Yet, it was also time to denounce the oppression of gays after May 1945.
The green wreath with pink triangle, a cry for equal rights, produced the pink triangle as the symbol of discrimination. The war sign, now used as a joke sign, was supposed to make clear to everyone what happens when minorities are not accepted.
The two men were quickly apprehended. A year later, there was the first successful wreath-laying. Within circles of activists, the idea grew for an independent memorial of their own. In 1979, the Foundation for a Gay Monument was established. The monument on Westermarkt was inaugurated in 1987. With the pink triangle as its basic shape.
With IHLIA unable to host physical exhibits during the corona crisis, the LGBTI archive is commemorating the failed attempt at a wreath-laying fifty years ago with an online exhibition. ‘No wreath at the Dam’ provides a picture of the beginning of a new type of activism with the LGBTI movement. It started with that attempt to lay a wreath at the Dam and it ended with a Gay Monument at the Westermarkt.
Location: Online
When: From 16 April 2020
READ | WATCH | LISTEN
Visit the exhibition at IHLIA Outside the Box (in Dutch)
READ | WATCH | LISTEN
Catalog accompanying the exhibition
