Plaza de la Diversidad Sexual, LGBT memorial square in Ciudad Vieja, Uruguay

Plaza de la Diversidad Sexual is a square in Ciudad Vieja with a triangular granite monolith at its center. The structure was designed as a permanent recognition and symbol of solidarity with the LGBT community.

The square was proposed jointly by eight LGBT groups, including Grupo Diversidad, Amnistía Internacional Uruguay and the Asociación de Lesbianas Uruguayas, and won unanimous backing from the Montevideo legislature. It was inaugurated on 2 February 2005 by mayor Mariano Arana, with writer Eduardo Galeano and singer Arlett Fernández present. Montevideo thus became the fourth city in the world and the first in Latin America with a square devoted to sexual diversity.

The square was proposed jointly by eight LGBT community groups, among them Grupo Diversidad, Amnistía Internacional Uruguay, the Biblioteca LGTTBI, the Hermanas de la Perpetua Indulgencia and the Asociación de Lesbianas Uruguayas. The Montevideo legislature backed the proposal unanimously. The pink-and-black veined marble of the plaque echoes the triangles that Nazis forced gay men and lesbians to wear in the camps.

The square sits at the end of the Pasaje Policía Vieja, the alley off Sarandí and Bartolomé Mitre streets, roughly midway between the Catedral and Plaza Independencia, so it is reached on foot through the Ciudad Vieja. The monolith stands inside the small space, its inscribed plate on the slanted top face.

The triangular shape of the monolith references the pink triangles used to mark LGBT individuals during historical persecution. This design choice creates a thoughtful connection to that painful past without needing to explain it directly.