Pink triangle

The pink triangle has been a symbol for various LGBTQIA+ identities. Initially used as a badge of shame for "gay men" in the Nazi Germany of the 1930s and 40s, it was revived in the 70s and 80s as a symbol of protest against homophobia and ever since reclaimed as a positive symbol of self-identity and pride by the larger LGBTQIA+ community.

Nazi symbol


Before the use of the pink triangle, gay male prisoners in Nazi concentration camps were marked by a variety of symbols: a green triangle to identify gay criminals; a red triangle for gay political prisoners; the number "175" was used in reference to Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, which criminalized homosexual activity; or the letter "A", which stood for Arschficker and literally translates as "arse fucker".

Afterward, the concentration camps started to require each prisoner to wear a downward-pointing, equilateral triangular cloth badge on their chest, the color of which identified the reason for their imprisonment. The triangle was pink for anyone who was a gay man, bisexual man, or transgender woman, as well as a "sexual deviant", including zoophiles and pedophiles in addition to sex offenders. Those assigned a pink triangle were considered to be at the very bottom of the camp hierarchy. Lesbians, bisexual women, and trans men were not systematically imprisoned, though when they were, some were classified as "asocial" and forced to wear a black triangle.

Gay rights symbol


In the 1980s, the symbol was reclaimed by members of the LGBTQIA+ community and took on a more militant tone. The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, formed by six gay activists in New York City in 1987, adopted an upward-pointing pink triangle on a black field along with the slogan "SILENCE = DEATH" as its logo.

Monuments and memorials
The pink triangle has become a common symbol used in monuments commemorating the victims of anti-gay violence and those who died in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as gay victims of the Holocaust. The first country to do so was the Netherlands, opening the Homomonument on September 5, 1987.