In keeping with our Holocaust theme of the past two days, this is a very good thing. I'm a bit confused as to the monument itself. The way AP describes it, it sounds a bit peep-show-ish. Not sure I like that. And the photo AP associated with it - an old man in a trenchcoat peeping through a hole in a wall - well, let's not even go there.
Anyway, the Holocaust Museum has a special exhibit online about the Nazi persecution of gays. It's worth checking out - here's an excerpt:
"The Nazi campaign against homosexuality targeted the more than one million German men who, the state asserted, carried a 'degeneracy' that threatened the 'disciplined masculinity' of Germany. Denounced as 'antisocial parasites" and as 'enemies of the state,' more than 100,000 men were arrested under a broadly interpreted law against homosexuality. Approximately 50,000 men served prison terms as convicted homosexuals, while an unknown number were institutionalized in mental hospitals. Others—perhaps hundreds—were castrated under court order or coercion. Analyses of fragmentary records suggest that between 5,000 and 15,000 homosexual men were imprisoned in concentration camps, where many died from starvation, disease, exhaustion, beatings, and murder."Andy Towle has more on the Berlin Monument, he says it's actually quite cool - more here and here.
Main & gay blog