by Rex Wockner
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Barcelona Mayor Jordi Hereu unveiled a monument March 20 to gay and transgender people persecuted throughout history.
The large marble triangle is located in Ciudadela Park, next to the Catalonian Parliament.
"This is a necessary monument to remember the discrimination, repression, humiliation, persecution, attacks and assassinations that the LGTB community suffered for centuries and very especially during the Franco dictatorship," said Antonio Guirado, secretary general of the Catalonian LGBT umbrella group Gay Lesbian Coordinator. "We are honored as citizens to see recognized the persecution suffered, and above all the still-unmet challenge for social normalization."
Gay Lesbian Coordinator Honorary President Jordi Petit added: "This is the fourth monument erected in Europe in memory of homophobic and transphobic barbarism — following in the footsteps of Amsterdam, Berlin and the Nazi extermination camp Mauthausen in Austria. It is the only one in the south of the continent and is very suitable for the city that is the seat of the Mediterranean Union."
