Gay History 101 - the origins of the pink triangle

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Trooper_IHB

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So, I thought I would bring you a quick history lesson tonight....one most do not know about. This Wiki piece chronicles the history of why gays use the pink triangle as a way to identify themselves, and lesbians the black triangle. However, the triangle stickers you used to see on cars have, for the most part, been replaced by rainbow flags...



<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/Berlin_Pink_Triangle.JPG/200px-" alt="" />



<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gays_during_the_Holocaust">History of Gays in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust</a>



<em>After World War I, in the period known as the Weimar Republic, gay men in Germany, especially in Berlin, enjoyed more freedom and acceptance than anywhere else in the world.[citation needed] However, upon the rise of Adolf Hitler, gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbians,[1] were two of several groups targeted by the Nazi Party and were ultimately among the roster of Holocaust victims. Beginning in 1933, gay organizations were banned, scholarly books about homosexuality, and sexuality in general, were burned, and homosexuals within the Nazi Party itself were murdered. The Gestapo compiled lists of homosexuals, and they were compelled to sexually conform to the German norm. An estimated 1.2 million men were out homosexuals in Germany in 1928.[citation needed] Between 1933-45, more than 150,000 men were registered by police as homosexuals ("Rosa Listen" or "Pink Lists"), and of these, some 100,000 were officially sentenced. Most of these men spent time in regular prisons, and an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 of the total sentenced were incarcerated in <strong>concentration camps</strong>. It is unclear how many of these 50,000 to 65,000 eventually perished in the concentration camps. The leading scholar Ruediger Lautman however believes that the death rate in concentration camps of imprisoned homosexuals may have been as high as 60%. Homosexuals in camps were treated in an unusually cruel manner by their captors, and were also persecuted by their fellow inmates. This was a factor in the relatively high death rate for homosexuals, compared to other "anti-social groups".



<strong>After the war, the treatment of homosexuals in concentration camps went unacknowledged by most countries. Some that did escape were even re-arrested and imprisoned based on evidence found during the Nazi years. It was not until the 1980s that governments acknowledged this episode, and not until 2002 that the German government apologized to the gay community</strong>. This period still provokes controversy, however. In 2005, the European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding the Holocaust where the persecution of homosexuals was mentioned.</em>



There is a play called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent_(play)">BENT</a> that I would highly recommend (well, the DVD). When it came to the big screen it only played in smaller avant-garde theatres....it's the movie where Clive Owen first made a name for himself. (edit: sorry, can't get the link to work)



So we display <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_triangle">The Pink Triangle</a> in an attempt to "reclaim" it as a symbol of pride, instead of one of shame.



Gays were incarcerated due to "violations" of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph_175">Paragraph 175.</a>



No on Prop 8.
 
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I had never heard of her before your post. I checked the website, but facts are fairly slim. I think it might bother me more if I was from Minnesota.



FYI, you can't "cure" us gays. There is nothing to cure. This is our genetic make up. I'm sure this will be discovered someday.
 
I'm really curious to see how many people knew that gays were exterminated during the Holocaust. I only learned about it when I was 19...was in a bookstore in Provincetown, Massachusetts (gay utopia) and saw a framed wall hanging of a concentration camp uniform complete with pink triangle. I was shocked when I read the card placed next to it describing who had once worn it....and miraculously survived.



Now, that's a piece of history that I would mortgage my house to own. A piece of MY history.
 
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