A passion for progress

Have you noticed the statue of La Bloemardine on Brussels’ City Hall (Rue de la Tête d'Or, 2nd floor, to the right of the central window) and do you know its history?

Let's go back in time to discover Heilwige Bloemard, better known as "(La) Bloemardin(n)e".

This great lady, born in Brussels at the end of the 13th century, was a follower of a movement of thought known as the "Free Spirit", which, somewhat like the beguines, frees the human being from all obedience and allows them to freely attain their desires. The principle was not necessarily to the liking of the ecclesiastical authorities of the Middle Ages, who quickly identified the movement as a new heresy.

Heilwige was probably endowed with a superior intelligence and a remarkable oratorical talent. She composed some texts, describing a kind of sensual piety. Although her thought benefited from a certain dissemination, due to her noble background in Brussels, it was far from being generally appreciated! Medieval society did not accept the independence and power of a female group or way of thinking; rather they branded them as people of depraved sexual morality! 

In 1975, Brussels feminists from the "Open Door" movement celebrated the 640th anniversary of Bloemardin(n)e's death by planting flowers at the foot of the wall of City Hall and putting up a sign in her honour, declaring her to be "Brussels’ first feminist".

Suzan Daniel is seen as the initiator of the LGBT movement in Belgium. Her real name was Suzan De Pues, a lesbian activist born in Brussels in 1918. She encountered the homosexual community in Brussels in the 1930s.

She was the first female film critic in Belgium - "Daniel" was inspired by the name of the French actress Danielle Darieux. She founded the first Belgian association of gays and lesbians in 1953, the Cultural Centre of Belgium (CCB). The name was not very explicit, to maintain a certain, necessary discretion at the time. Soon enough, men took over the CCB, and Suzan Daniel was removed.

Suzan Daniel became more discreet during the second part of her life... in 1996, the first Belgian LGBT archive and documentation centre, the Suzan Daniel Fund, was created.

Sometimes considered too energetic, too modern, too progressive, she defined herself as "French in spirit, Flemish in heart, but above all Brussels zinneke". She died in Laeken in 2007.