PRIDE FACT 9
What is the Pink Triangle symbol?
The pink triangle, part of a color-coded system once imposed by Nazis to identify and persecute homosexuals, had been reclaimed in the 1970s as a bold symbol of remembrance and action against persecution. It is still widely used, often alongside or superimposed upon the Rainbow Flag. The Pink Triangle’s Reclamation: Although the pink triangle was first reclaimed by gay activists in West Germany, others soon began to adopt it. In August 1974, the Gay Activists Alliance became the first group in the United States to use the pink triangle as a symbol of gay activism when they displayed it in a New York rally supporting a gay rights ordinance. LGBTQ+ activists across the United States soon began employing the pink triangle as a warning of the dangers of homophobia and the need for legal protections for the LGBTQ+ community. By the 1980s, the pink triangle had become the most widely recognizable symbol of queer activism in North America and Europe. In March 1986, amid the growing death toll of the AIDS crisis, conservative political commentator William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in the New York Times that everyone with AIDS should be tattooed as a national health measure so that the public could avoid them. In response, a group of artists and activists calling themselves the Silence = Death collective designed a now iconic poster featuring a fuchsia triangle on a solid black background.
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