I am very interested in the process where a human finds her or his personal freedom. Lately I have been thinking that the process our society and culture went through from the Victorian and Edwardian periods into the after-war upheaval can be seen almost as a symbol of this. Or in Berlin: From Kaiserzeit into the Weimar-republic. And in the same way that Magnus Hirschfeld’s project – as manifested in his Institute for Sexual Science – also was part of his own process of becoming more free. Of course: together with a whole generation of Queers, of every variety.

I think that this process of freeing that we Queers go through is not only important for us personally, or only for other in the same situation. Others, non-queers, can also read this as a symbol to help them see their own lack of freedom, – created through their internal prejudice and self-suppression, and learn from queer histories about how truthfulness and courage can create freedom – also for them.