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A pink triangle in the original Nazi orientation. A pink triangle has been a symbol for the LGBT community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reappropriated as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because ...
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Pink triangles were originally used in concentration camps to identify gay prisoners.
Before the pink triangle became a worldwide symbol of gay power and pride, it was intended as a badge of shame. In Nazi Germany, a downward-pointing pink triangle was sewn onto the shirts of gay men in concentration camps—to identify and further dehumanize them. It wasn’t until the 1970s that activists would reclaim the symbol as one of liberation.
Homosexuality was technically made illegal in Germany in 1871, but it was rarely enforced until the Nazi Party took power in 1933. As part of their mission to racially and culturally “purify” Germany, the Nazis arrested thousands of LGBT individuals, mostly gay men, whom they viewed as degenerate.
Auschwitz
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates 100,000 gay men were arrested and between 5,000 and 15,000 were placed in concentration camps. Just as Jews were forced to identify themselves with yellow stars, gay men in concentration camps had to wear a large pink triangle. (Brown triangles were used for Romani people, red for political prisoners, green for criminals, blue for immigrants, purple for Jehovah's Witnesses and black for "asocial" people, including prostitutes and lesbians.)
At the camps, gay men were treated especially harshly, by guards and fellow prisoners alike. “There was no solidarity for the homosexual prisoners; they belonged to the lowest caste,” Pierre Seel, a gay Holocaust survivor, wrote in his memoir I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror.
Discover how daring O.S.S. heroes penetrated the heart of history's most ferocious police state in a mission so dangerous that even the intrepid British wouldn't attempt it.
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Jan 20, 2023 · The pink triangle is just one of many examples of iconography that, though developed initially to stigmatize other gay men, has been taken up as a symbol of pride, solidarity, and LGBTQ dignity. The pink triangle has also been adapted to create other symbols for the LGBTQ community. It was altered to create the “biangles,” a symbol of ...
Jun 27, 2024 · Among the targeted groups were men identified as gay by the Nazi regime. These men were forced to wear pink triangles sewn to their uniforms. Due to the work and activism of LGBTQIA+ communities across the world, the pink triangle has been reclaimed as a symbol of pride and remembrance for the last fifty years.
The pink triangle was later reclaimed by gay men, as well as some lesbians, in various political movements as a symbol of personal pride and remembrance. [ 58 ] [ 59 ] AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power ( ACT-UP ) adopted the downward-pointing pink triangle to symbolize the "active fight back" against HIV / AIDS "rather than a passive resignation to fate."
Sep 30, 2024 · The word "progress" in the new flag isn't only about adding the new colors to it. It's also because of the shape, which differs from the original design of horizontal stripes only. The Progress Pride Flag shows the white, pink, baby blue, black, and brown stripes in a triangle shape, with the old six-color rainbow stacked next to them.
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May 31, 2023 · The origins of the pink triangle can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where it was initially used as a symbol to represent homosexuality. However, during the Nazi era, it took on a far more sinister meaning. While other triangles were used to identify various groups, such as the red triangle for political prisoners and ...
