Pk triangl were origally ed ncentratn mps to intify gay men.
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
* gay triangle *
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. Jt as Jews were forced to intify themselv wh yellow stars, gay men ncentratn mps had to wear a large pk triangle.
PRI FLAGS 101: EVERYTHG YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT GAY, TRANS, AND OTHER PRI FLAGS
A prentatn of the major symbols associated wh the gay, lbian, bisexual, and trangenr movements (and some general symbols thrown for good measure) and their histori. * gay 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.
THE GAY STRAIGHT-TALKER
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. 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.
GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
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 SHANGHAI: WHERE TO GO OUT CHA'S BIGGT CY
“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.
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.