Homomonument

from the diary: “Thursday 10/27/88”

In Amsterdam I found “the Gay Center [where] I saw awhile, met another Californian. Jack. He’s 23, also – wait. I’m 22, aren’t I? I said I was 23. I will be in a few days anyway. [Jack] was busy marking a map of Amsterdam with gay spots and asking the gentleman behind the counter about this or that bar in the guidebook. I asked where the Homomonument is and got that marked on my map. Jack asked about slang terms. Eric S. will be thrilled to know that ‘flikker’ means faggot. [Eric Shanower included a character in one of his Oz graphic novels whom he named ‘Flicker’.]

“Jack and I went in search of the Homomonument. We passed it about three times before we finally figured it out. There are three large pink marble triangles in the shadow of a big church. One [triangle] is flush with the sidewalk, another is a foot high and the third pokes into the canal and is divided into steps. All 3 are connected by a thin strip of marble which makes them a large triangle. We were disappointed that it was quite so understated. There was a sign describing the monument’s purpose. ‘celebrate, commemorate, incourage …’ That’s my paraphrase.

“We stopped in at a bakery/deli for lunch. I had a small meat pie, he had a quiche. Then we bought dessert. I saved mine in my knapsack for later. ‘Do you smoke?’ he asked. ‘No.’ I thought he meant tobacco but he had gone to the Bulldog [coffeehouse] and bought some pot. So then he found a corner out of the wind & lit his pipe. I took a hit, got slightly buzzed.”

Jack and I wandered around the Amsterdam city museum together but parted ways when he couldn’t pass up a visit to a torture implements exhibit.