The Pk Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay Pri | HISTORY

Contents:

• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• NAZI SYMBOL FOR GAYS, NOW RECLAIMED, TOWERS OVER SAN FRANCIS
• SYMBOLS OF GAY AND LBIAN CULTURE

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. 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.

“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 ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, 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.

NAZI SYMBOL FOR GAYS, NOW RECLAIMED, TOWERS OVER SAN FRANCIS

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.

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.

SYMBOLS OF GAY AND LBIAN CULTURE

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”. Jt as the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a yellow Star of David, they forced people they labeled as gay to wear verted pk triangl (or ‘die Rosa-Wkel’).

And the fact that was almost impossible to nvict anyone unls he nfsed to such a crime urt meant that police jt kept a watchful eye on gay bars and events, and Germany end up beg home to a vibrant gay muny. Historian Robert Beachy argu that, ironilly, the law spurred scientific tert the study of sexual preferenc, and that rearch tend to enurage a more scientific unrstandg of human sexualy, which further allowed the ia of gay rights to flourish.

Hler saw gay men as a threat to his mpaign to purify Germany, pecially bee their partnerships uld not bear children who would grow the Aryan race he wanted to cultivate. Durg that perd, gay-iendly bars and clubs started beg shut down, thori burned the books at a major rearch stutn voted to the study of sexualy, and gay aternal anizatns were shuttered. The efforts only creased after the Night of the Long Kniv, the 1934 purge of Nazi lears who were acced of tryg to overthrow Hler; they clud Storm Troopers lear Ernst Röhm, whom the SS murred, later cg his homosexualy as jtifitn for his murr.