During the Netherlands' annual Remembrance Day ceremony on 4 May, wreaths are laid on the monument to commemorate LGBT victims of persecution.

I think that is the most beautiful component of the Homomonument: we are there, proud and strong as granite, the monument binds us together here and now, but we are just as intertwined with the city and society in a larger time and space.The idea of perpetuating the memory of homosexual victims of World War II appeared at the very beginning of the organized Dutch gay movement.

[8] In 1970, a year before the complete decriminalization of homosexuality in the Netherlands,[10] a group of gay activists were arrested for trying to lay a wreath at the National Monument to the Victims of World War II on Dam Square, Amsterdam.

Throughout the 1970s, similar wreath-placing demonstrations were executed with varying success, as activists pushed for the inclusion of homosexuals in the public's collective memory of Hitler's "social purification" campaigns.

[8] In the spring of 1979, during a period of rapid growth of the gay rights movement, the initiative to build a monument to persecuted homosexuals entered a qualitatively new stage when the Homomonument Foundation was founded.

In opposition to him, supporters of the monument noted that its construction would not make sense if there were no people in society who caused suffering to gays and lesbians, complicating their lives.

[18] The Homomonument embodies three ideas and three times: the memory of the past, opposition to discrimination and repression in the present, and parting words for the future.

The top of the triangle, projecting into the canal, points to Dam Square, where the National Monument to the Victims of World War II is located.

[19] Near the triangle, there is an information kiosk called "Pink Point", which sells literature and souvenirs related to the gay life of the Netherlands.

Around the perimeter of the slab is engraved a line from the poem "To the Young Fisherman" by the Dutch Jewish poet Jacob Israël de Haan, who was allegedly homosexual: "Such a boundless craving for friendship" (Dutch: Naar Vriendschap Zulk een Mateloos Verlangen), which, according to the plan of Karin Daan, describes the driving force in relationships between people.

The apex, outside the large triangle, points to the home of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl whose diaries written during the German occupation of the Netherlands combined millions of human tragedies associated with the Nazi genocide in the story of one child.

The plate, placed on the canal fence on both sides (so that it can be seen both from land and from the water), contains an inscription in three languages (Dutch, English and French):[20] Homomonument Commemorates all women and men ever oppressed and persecuted because of their homosexuality.

In 1991, the bridge over the Keizersgracht canal, located north of the Homomonument, was renamed in honour of the anti-fascist, resistance fighter, gay activist, and long-term leader of the COC Niek Engelschman.

[21] Every year, on the National Day of Remembrance on 4 May, the Homomonument hosts an official ceremony to commemorate the gays and lesbians who were victims of Nazi repression, as well as those who are still being persecuted for their sexual orientation around the world.

The event, which brings together hundreds of people, is attended by various officials, representatives of political parties, and public organizations, many of whom make speeches.

The ceremony begins at 8 pm and includes the laying of flowers, the lowering of the Dutch flag, and the traditional two minutes of silence followed by the national anthem "Wilhelmus".

[7] On 24 October 2006, the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, and the chairman of the LGBT organization COC, Frank van Dalen, inaugurated a model Homomonument in the Madurodam miniature park in The Hague.