Gay Men unr the Nazi Regime | Holot Encyclopedia

Contents:

• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• PRI FLAGS 101: EVERYTHG YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT GAY, TRANS, AND OTHER PRI FLAGS
• THE GAY STRAIGHT-TALKER
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• GAY SHANGHAI: WHERE TO GO OUT CHA'S BIGGT CY

THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

In Nazi Germany, a downward-potg pk triangle was sewn onto the shirts of gay men ncentratn mps—to intify and further humanize them. Homosexualy was technilly ma illegal Germany 1871, but was rarely enforced until the Nazi Party took power 1933. As part of their missn to racially and culturally “purify” Germany, the Nazis arrted thoands of LGBT dividuals, mostly gay men, whom they viewed as Uned Stat Holot Memorial Mm timat 100, 000 gay men were arrted and between 5, 000 and 15, 000 were placed ncentratn mps.

PRI FLAGS 101: EVERYTHG YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT GAY, TRANS, AND OTHER PRI FLAGS

Jt as Jews were forced to intify themselv wh yellow stars, gay men ncentratn mps had to wear a large pk triangle. )Corbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, the mps, gay men were treated pecially harshly, by guards and fellow prisoners alike.

“There was no solidary for the homosexual prisoners; they belonged to the lowt ste, ” Pierre Seel, a gay Holot survivor, wrote his memoir I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi timated 65 percent of gay men ncentratn mps died between 1933 and 1945. Even after World War II, both East and Wt Germany upheld the untry’s anti-gay law, and many gays remaed rcerated until the early 1970s. The next year, post-war Germany’s first gay rights anizatn, Homosexuelle Aktn Wtberl (HAW), reclaimed the pk triangle as a symbol of liberatn.

Horac Villalobos/Corbis/Getty ImagMemorial plaqu for homosexuals, Jehovah's Wns and Wehrmacht serters are placed where once stood one of the molished barracks Buchenwald ncentratn mp near Weimar, Germany. In 1986, six New York Cy activists created a poster wh the words SILENCE = DEATH and a bright pk upward-facg triangle, meant to ll attentn to the AIDs crisis that was cimatg populatns of gay men across the untry. The origal pri flag was created the 1970s by gay activist Gilbert Baker, iend of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office California.

THE GAY STRAIGHT-TALKER

Before the rabow-striped Pri flag was created, the LGBTQ+ muny tend to e the pk triangle as a symbol, adapted om the badge that gay prisoners were forced to wear Nazi ncentratn mps.

Durg World War II, Nazis forced gay men mps to wear a downward-potg triangle, wh around 100, 000 timated to have been held prisoner and 65, 000 thought to have been killed. Green rnatns first appeared when Osr Wil adopted them for his entourage the late purple hand n be traced back to a prott 1969: After the San Francis Examer prted a homophobic report on gay bars, lols protted outsi the paper’s offic.

Baker and a iend named Lynn Segerblom, also known as Faerie Argyle Rabow, veloped a rabow versn that had eight lors, wh a hot pk stripe later removed bee was difficult to was often lled the “Gay Pri Flag” at first, ’s now e to reprent a much broar muny than jt gay men. “Gay” as a tch-all term for anythg genr-nonnformg is a fast-vanishg vtige of the years, the rabow-striped Pri flag me to be thought of as the sole in of Pri. The Internatnal Gay Rights Congrs Edburgh formally adopted the symbol as an in for gay and lbian rights 1974.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Tradnally, the symbol is drawn pla black, but more recent versns pict the double mars wh the rabow lors filled to symbolize the gays’ aterny or solidary wh other subsectors of the muny.

The symbol has sce been reclaimed as a symbol of Pri and remembrance of the horrors that gay men experienced Nazi Germany.

This was a practice popularized by thor Osr Wil who was openly gay and would proudly wear a green rnatn at public events. Back the 20th century New York, gay men would wear a red necktie or bow tie or basilly any red accsory to subtly reprent their inti and help intify members of the same muny.

GAY SHANGHAI: WHERE TO GO OUT CHA'S BIGGT CY

Fortunately, after retirg at age 27, Burke ught a send wd and domated the Gay Softball World Seri where he kept the practice of givg high-fiv to his teammat. Boston artists Daniel Thaxton and Bernie Toale ed a lavenr rhoceros to symbolize the gay muny for their 1970s public ad mpaign led by Gay Media Actn Advertisg.

The practice of gay people intifyg as unirns beme popular 2018, as unirn horns and actual unirn stum ma their way to Pri events. To prott the creasg number of news articl agast the LGBTQ people San Francis 1969, 60 members of the Gay Liberatn Front and Society of Human Rights staged a rally on Halloween night. But the protters did not stop and ed the k thrown at them to prt purple hands on the walls of the buildg and scrawl “Gay Power”.

He was missned to create a flag by another gay in, polician Harvey Milk, for San Francis’s annual pri cisn to enlist Baker proved serendipo, as the ia of a flag to reprent the gay and lbian muny had occurred to him two years earlier. As Baker told the Mm of Morn Art durg a 2015 terview, he had been spired by the celebratns markg Ameri’s bicentennial 1976, notg that the nstant display of stars and strip ma him realize the cultural need for a siar rallyg sign for the gay muny. And as a stgglg drag performer who was acctomed to creatg his own garments, he was well-equipped to sew the soon-to-be inic the time, the most monly ed image for the burgeong gay rights movement was the pk triangle, a symbol ed by the Nazis to intify homosexuals.