In the fall of 2010 and the fall of 2011, I traveled to Europe to visit some of the sites discussed in this book. As a gay man born in the 1950s, and having lived through the sexual revolution, I found it hard to comprehend the horrors suffered by men simply because of their sexuality.
Visiting the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen on a bitterly cold day was frightening. I was dressed for winter, and yet I was suffering from the freezing temperatures. The feeling of death seemed to permeate the camp. My winter boots, hat, and gloves protected me, but I knew that the men who had been housed in the camp wore little more than their uniforms, with virtually no protection from the cold. I knew that on cold days some men were sent naked and wet to stand in the freezing temperatures. Their suffering could only be imagined. When I saw the gas chamber, it was sobering to realize that thousands of bodies had been cremated there. But it was when I saw the poles used to suspend men by their wrists tied behind them that I was well and truly horrified. The idea that men could inflict such punishment on other men made the day so much bleaker.
Writing this book has given me the opportunity to think about my own privileges, and that I was able to grow up relatively unscarred by my preference for my own sex. While I take comfort in realizing that gays and lesbians are no longer persecuted the way they once were in Europe, I am also more aware of the torments that await gay men and women in the less enlightened countries of the world. The fight for gays to live a normal life persists. I truly hope that it continues to get better for gay youth everywhere.