Why Queer Liberation Can’t Stop at Copenhagen

Celebrating victories in safe cities means nothing if others are left behind.

I’m Alexander Cheves, and this is LOVE, BEASTLY—a blog about sex, feelings, and manhood. It’s written mostly for men—gay, straight, bi, MSM, or just curious—but some readers are women, and some don’t fit into categories. Everyone’s welcome here.

This is one of my more personal essays. Heads up: these can sometimes include explicit content or emotionally triggering subjects.

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If you need another reason to move to Europe, Copenhagen was just named the most gay-friendly city in the world by Lonely Planet. The capital city of Denmark just celebrated its 25th anniversary as the first city in the world to allow same-sex civil unions, and same-sex marriage has been legal in the country since 2012.

In July, one of the city's popular squares was renamed "Rainbow Square" to commemorate the LGBT movement.

I've never been to Copenhagen. Until now, whenever I thought of the city, I thought of Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, a harrowing YA novella about a Jewish family trying to escape Copenhagen during the Nazi occupation.

What is still overlooked by much of Holocaust literature is the fact that gay men and women, regardless of whether they were Jewish, were also sent to camps like Auschwitz and received some of the most extreme treatments there. Paragraph 175 is a documentary that details the horrors gays and lesbians experienced in the camps.