Separate in Stone: Danish Cemetery Offers Gay Section

A news gays-only space in a municipal ceremony in Copenhagen.

If some gays prefer their own social institutions while alive, why not offer the option of separate resting places for eternity? Or so a Danish group seemed to reason this spring as it reserved gays-only space in a municipal cemetery in Copenhagen.

The group called Rainbow rented more than 36 spots in the Assistens cemetery for urns containing the remains of gay people. A large triangle of pebbles and a rock draped with a rainbow flag separates the gay area from the rest of the cemetery. The mainstream portion of the cemetery contains the graves of prominent Danes, including influential writers Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard.

Rainbow is offering the funeral urn sites to its members for 2,500 Danish kroner, or around $530. At that price, competition for the spaces should be stiff.


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