History
Beginning out of the violence of the Nazi party, the pink triangle is now a symbol that represents gay pride, but it also reclaims a symbol of oppression now used to increase understanding.
In Nazi concentration camps, homosexual prisoners had to wear the pink triangle to introduce them as homosexuals, this caused them to receive worse treatment and therefore as a result, they were less likely to survive in the camps.
There was a system that the Nazis soon developed of several different coloured triangles for the prisoners in the concentration camps : yellow for Jews; red for politicals; green for criminals; purple for Jehovah's Witnesses; black for asocials; brown for gypsies; blue for emigrants and pink for homosexuals. The ones left as ‘the lowest of the low’ were the Jewish homosexuals which had to wear the two triangles, yellow and pink to show that they were both Jewish and homosexual.
In the 1970s, the gay liberation movement chose to use the the pink triangle to represent gay rights and their pride.
In the 1980's the US lead ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) chose to use the triangle as its sign and inverted it to signify an active fight back against intolerance.
Though not everyone embraces the pink triangle as a positive symbol of gay pride, the triangle and inverted triangle have gone through countless variations and remain popular. Like the rainbow flag, the pink triangle is now an image found on pride badges, stickers, and t-shirts, and is a common symbol used to advertise gay-friendly events and activities.
In Nazi concentration camps, homosexual prisoners had to wear the pink triangle to introduce them as homosexuals, this caused them to receive worse treatment and therefore as a result, they were less likely to survive in the camps.
There was a system that the Nazis soon developed of several different coloured triangles for the prisoners in the concentration camps : yellow for Jews; red for politicals; green for criminals; purple for Jehovah's Witnesses; black for asocials; brown for gypsies; blue for emigrants and pink for homosexuals. The ones left as ‘the lowest of the low’ were the Jewish homosexuals which had to wear the two triangles, yellow and pink to show that they were both Jewish and homosexual.
In the 1970s, the gay liberation movement chose to use the the pink triangle to represent gay rights and their pride.
In the 1980's the US lead ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) chose to use the triangle as its sign and inverted it to signify an active fight back against intolerance.
Though not everyone embraces the pink triangle as a positive symbol of gay pride, the triangle and inverted triangle have gone through countless variations and remain popular. Like the rainbow flag, the pink triangle is now an image found on pride badges, stickers, and t-shirts, and is a common symbol used to advertise gay-friendly events and activities.
My opinion
To know that so many homosexual men were killed, tortured and torn apart just for being who they were, homosexual, petrifies me. They weren’t only discriminated by the nazis who guarded them in the concentration camps, but also by the other prisoners who weren’t homosexual. This is why the survival rate in those concentration camps were much lower for homosexuals.It means that if I had lived in their times, during those periods and that I had been homosexual, I would have had to go through all the horrors they went through, forcing me to feel ashamed of who I was. Feeling miserable for being someone who had never wanted anything else but to be seen like a normal girl just like everybody else. Yet, I wasn’t there and I don’t know what it was like for them. The only thing I wish is that this never happens again in the future and that people could find more important arguments to commit such a crime.