Apink triangle is asymbol for theLGBTQ+ community. Initially intended as abadge of shame, it was laterreappropriated as a positive symbol of self-identity. It originated inNazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s as one of theNazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities asgay men.[1][2] In the 1970s, it was revived as a symbol of protest againsthomophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger LGBT community as a popular symbol ofLGBTQ+ pride and theLGBTQ+ movements andqueer liberation movements.[3][4]
InNazi concentration camps, each prisoner was required to wear a downward-pointing, equilateraltriangular cloth badge on their chest, the color of which identified the stated reason for their imprisonment.[5] Early on, prisoners perceived as gay men were variously identified with a green triangle (indicating criminals) or red triangle (political prisoners), the number175 (referring toParagraph 175, the section of the German penal code criminalizing homosexual activity), or the letterA (which stood forArschficker, literally "arse fucker").[6]
Later, the use of a pink triangle was established for prisoners identified as homosexual men and transgender women. (Lesbian and bisexual women andtrans men were not systematically imprisoned; some were classified as "asocial", wearing ablack triangle.)[7][8] The pink triangle was also assigned to others considered sexual deviants, includingzoophiles and pedophiles[3] in addition to sex offenders. If a prisoner was also identified asJewish, the triangle was superimposed over a second yellow triangle pointing the opposite way, to resemble theStar of David like theyellow badge identifying other Jews. Prisoners wearing a pink triangle were harshly treated by most other prisoners.[3]
After the camps were liberated at the end of the Second World War, some of the prisoners imprisoned for homosexuality were re-incarcerated by theAllied-establishedFederal Republic of Germany, as the Nazi laws against homosexuality were not repealed there until 1969.[9][10] The Nazi amendments to Paragraph 175, which turned homosexuality, previously labeled as a minor offense, into afelony, remained intact in East Germany until 1968.[11] In 2002 theGerman government issued an official apology togay men who were persecuted during the war.[12]
Rudolf Brazda, one of the last known homosexual concentration camp survivors, died on August 3, 2011, at the age of 98.[13]
In the 1970s, newly active Australian, European and North American queer liberation advocates began to use the pink triangle to raise awareness of its use in Nazi Germany.[14] In 1972, gay concentration camp survivorHeinz Heger's memoirDie Männer mit dem rosa Winkel (The Men with the Pink Triangle) brought it to greater public attention.[15] In response, the German gay liberation groupHomosexuelle Aktion Westberlin issued a call in 1973 for gay men to wear it as a memorial to past victims and to protest continuing discrimination.[16][17] In the 1975 movieThe Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr. Frank N. Furter—abisexualtransvestite[18][19]—wears a pink triangle badge on one of his outfits.[20] In 1976, Peter Recht, Detlef Stoffel, and Christiane Schmerl made the German documentaryRosa Winkel? Das ist doch schon lange vorbei... (Pink Triangle? That was such a long time ago...).[16] Publications such as San Francisco'sGay Sunshine and Toronto'sThe Body Politic promoted the pink triangle as a memorial to those who had faced persecution and oppression.[16]
In the 1980s, the pink triangle was increasingly used not just as a memorial but as a positive symbol of both self-identity and community identity. It commonly represented both gay and lesbian identity, and was incorporated into the logos of such organizations and businesses. It was also used by individuals, sometimes discreetly or ambiguously as an "insider" code unfamiliar to the heterosexual majority.[16] The logo for the 1987March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was a silhouette of the US Capitol Dome superimposed over a pink triangle.[17] Additionally, the first South Asian LGBTQ+ identity-based group used the pink triangle for its logo in 1986: the inverted triangle of Trikone’s logo also roughly traces the shape of the Indian subcontinent, a signifier of their identity-based membership.[21]
The design of thebiangles symbol ofbisexuality began with the pink triangle. The biangles symbol was designed by artist Liz Nania as she co-organized a bisexual contingent for theSecond National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987. The addition of a blue triangle to the pink triangle in the biangles symbolcontrasts the pink and representsheterosexuality. The two triangles overlap and form lavender, which represents the "queerness of bisexuality", referencing theLavender Menace and 1980s and 1990sassociations of lavender with queerness.[22][23]
Taking a more militant tone, theAIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) was formed by six gay activists in New York City in 1987, and to draw attention to the disease's disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men, and the apparent role of "genocidal" queer-antagonism in slowing progress on medical research,[24] adopted an upward-pointing pink triangle on a black field along with the slogan "SILENCE = DEATH" as its logo.[25][26][27] Some use the triangle in this orientation as a specific "reversal" of its usage by the Nazis.[28][29][30] ThePink Panthers Movement in Denver, Colorado, adopted a pink triangle with clawed panther print logo, adapted from the original Pink Panthers Patrol in New York City.[citation needed]
In the 1990s, a pink triangle enclosed in a green circle came to be commonly used as a symbol identifying "safe spaces" for LGBTQ+ people at work or in school.[31][32]
A pink Union Jack, with the blue triangles of the Union Jack changed to pink in reference to the pink triangle symbol, was created by a gay man, David Gwinnutt, to express his "pride in being gay and British."[33][34][35]
Use of the pink triangle symbol is not without criticism. In 1993, historian Klaus Müller argued that "the pink triangles of the concentration camps became an international symbol of gay and lesbian pride because so few of us are haunted by concrete memories of those who were forced to wear them."[36] In March 2025,US presidentDonald Trump shared a link toThe Washington Times, which showed the downward pointed pink triangle overlaid with ano symbol, in reference to Trump'santi-DEI policies.[37][38]
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The symbol of the pink triangle has been included in numerous public monuments and memorials. In 1980 a jury chose the pink triangle design for theHomomonument in Amsterdam, to memorialize gay and bisexual men killed in theHolocaust (and also victims ofanti-gay violence generally).[39] In 1995, after a decade of campaigning for it, a pink triangle plaque was installed at theDachau Memorial Museum to commemorate the suffering of gay men and lesbians.[40] In 2015 a pink triangle was incorporated into Chicago'sLegacy Walk.[41] It is the basis of the design of theGay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial inSydney. In 2001 it inspired both San Francisco'sPink Triangle Park inthe Castro and the 1-acre (4,000 m2) Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks that is displayed every year during thePride weekend.[42] It is also the basis for LGBTQ+ memorials inBarcelona,Sitges, andMontevideo, and the burial component of the LGBTQ+Pink Dolphin Monument inGalveston.
In the early 1970s, gay rights organizations in Germany and the United States launched campaigns to reclaim the pink triangle. In 1973 the German gay liberation group Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW) called upon gay men to wear the pink triangle as a memorial.
