Me too?

Those who've been repeatedly screwed over end up becoming master complainers -- you need to elbow your way in. And gay people, quite rightly, whine, and whine, and whine.... I've often heard grumping that assorted Jewish Holocaust museums ignore the lesbians and gay men who were also murdered in concentration camps during the Second World War.

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre and Museum makes a mere two mentions of dead homosexuals in its two-floor exhibit. But that's enough, as far as I'm concerned. Queers are in there, as they should be. And the centre's main focus is Jewish history both before, during and just after the war. Why should anyone complain about a museum having a particular focus? (I'd only suggest that the name be more specific so visitors know it's more of a Jewish memorial -- and a heck of an effectively upsetting one, at that.)

S'funny how the human brain simply cannot cope with the idea of seven million deaths -- it's too vast. A single killing seems so much more comprehensible. There was one known Canadian victim of Auschwitz. A plaque next to one windowed exhibit reads: "In 1939, Canadian Harry Cohen left Montreal for Poland on business. Trapped by the German invasion, he was hidden by a Polish family. But he was discovered, sent to Auschwitz and murdered. Years later his son received a package from his father's protector, including this tallit [prayer shawl]."

Certainly gay men and lesbians have pushed for our own memorials. As we should. And they do exist. From the July-August Out Traveler, here's a list of monuments honouring queers killed in the Holocaust:

* Amsterdam's was the world's first, in 1987 (located near the Anne Frank House)
* Berlin's arrived in 1989 (at Nollendorfplatz), and another is planned near the Brandenburg Gate
* San Francisco's came in 2000, at Castro and Market streets
*Sydney's was unveiled in 2001, across from the Sydney Jewish Museum
* Uruguay inaugurated its monument in February of this year.
* And the wires report that the city of Vienna has just organized a competition to design a memorial in Austria's capital. It'll be placed at the site of what was Gestapo headquarters.

Here in Montreal, there's a different death memorial, a parkette in the gay village given over to those who've died of AIDS. Activists fought like tigers for years to get even that small plot of land (and there's talk that it may soon be given over to a developer).

Memorials matter. They give us a tangible reminder of our struggles, and they push issues into public space. When memories have dimmed, every-day life deserves to be broken up by the surprise re-discovery of the past. Vancouver has an AIDS memorial, as does Toronto. But Tranna also has something else that's just as important: A statue that doesn't focus on death, instead honouring the life of Alexander Wood, the magistrate run out of town in 1810 for checking out area penises for a telltale scratch left behind by a raped woman. Wood was accused of being, er, overly enthusiastic in his inspections. A plaque below Wood's statue depicts buddy in mid examination. Hilariously, passers-by are said to be rubbing the other guy's naked butt for luck.

Wood might have been a pig, he might also have been caught up in the homophobic fear of "mollies" (that era's epithet of choice). Interpret how you will, Molly Wood is now a symbol of someone persecuted because he was thought to be a homo. You can't pick your trailblazers. All kinds of history matters.

And some where, there'll be a lesbian memorial, I hope. For someone, or some event. In time. Or is this wish just a bit of mindless me-tooism?