Lived queer memorials: How socially inclusive are queer sites of memory?

Abstract

This article delves into queer memorials: public artworks dedicated to, and commonly designed to commemorate, LGBTQ + people’s lives. As part of a broader international multisite project, we present the first comprehensive case-study survey (N = 343) of its kind, examining how everyday members of the public experience the Amsterdam Homomonument as an inclusive site of memory. As the world’s first publicly commissioned monument inaugurated for the gay community in 1987, our study shows how Amsterdam Homomonument currently occupies a realm intersecting gay and ‘post-gay’ public memories and imaginings. Through analysing Amsterdam Homomonument as a lived queer memorial, our study reveals the ambiguous experiences of inclusion and exclusion that publics derive from its place and community roles. We argue that queer sites of memory attain inclusiveness through establishing space that embraces broader arrays of gender and sexual differences, amid an era marked by heightened visibility of LGBTQ + communities (though not necessarily).