Monument of acceptance
Danny moved from Indonesia to The Netherlands 18 years ago to live with his partner Rudi in Zutphen.
It is hard to live as a gay man in Indonesia. It is a taboo. In 1997 I told my friends that I am gay and afterwards I told my family. All that went well. Except when I told my friends in the protestant church, they thought it was a sin. They wanted me to be a heterosexual man.
Then I think about gays in Indonesia
They prayed for me and saved money to pay for therapy. I have been in therapy for two years, because I didn’t want to lose my friends. Alas, I stayed the same.
Rudi: I am proud that Danny will place flowers on the monument. What I like is that on this spot people can think about the loved ones they have lost. A public place on such a fine location, even near a church, has an enormous symbolic meaning for me.
Danny: It is May the 4th, commemoration of the victims of WW II. I will put a wreath on the Homomonument. At that moment I will think about gays in Indonesia, who are beaten up on the streets by people that are homophobic.