Anti gay nazi symbol

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By R. Amy Elman, PhD

PUBLISHED IN JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY VOLUME 30, No. 3, 1-11

R. Amy Elman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kalamazoo College where she teaches on the Holocaust and other European issues from a feminist perspective.

The author wishes to thank Katinka Strom, Marigene Arnold, Peter L. Corrigan, Gail Griffin, and Donna Hughes for encouraging her work in this area.

Correspondence may be addressed: Department of Political Science, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI 49006. Or, elman@kzoo.edu

ABSTRACT: This article explores the politics of “reclamation.” Its focus is on pink and jet triangles, currently used as symbols for gay and sapphic pride and liberation.
Previously, these same identifiers were worn by those destined for annihilation during the Holocaust.
I suggest that, in [re]claiming these markers, activists, however well intentioned, race a path dangerously close to historical denial.

I sto

EIU Center For Gender and Sexual Diversity

Symbols within the GSD Community

Rainbow Flag

The rainbow flag has turn into the easily-recognized colors of pride for the gay people. The rainbow plays a part in many myths and stories related to gender and sexuality issues in Greek, Aboriginal, African, and other cultures. Apply of the rainbow flag by the gay community began in 1978 when it first appeared in the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Morning Parade. Borrowing symbolism from the hippie movement and jet civil rights groups, San Francisco painter Gilbert Baker crafted the rainbow flag in response to a need for a symbol that could be used year after year. The flag has six stripes, each color representing a component of the community: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, royal navy for harmony, and violet for spirit.

The rainbow flag has inspired a expansive variety of connected symbols and accessories, such as liberty rings. There are plenty of variations of the flag, including versions with superimposed lambdas, pink triangles, or other symbols. Some recent flags have added a brown and black stripe as a reminder of how important the intersectio

President Trump 're-Truthed' a story to his Truth Social platform which included a graphic of the Pink Triangle, a symbol used to target gay men in Nazi Germany.

The story he was reposting was an opinion piece by The Washington Times correspondent Jeremy Hunt praising the Trump Administration and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for banning transgender troops from the military.

LGBTQ+ publications and many people on X (formerly Twitter) acquire expressed concern over the President reposting an image of the infamous symbol.

The White House and The Washington Times have been contacted via email for comment.

Why It Matters

This marks the third time someone in or close to the Trump administration has been accused of proving symbolism that can be tied to the Nazis. Trump advisors Elon Musk and Steve Bannon hold both done 'Roman Salutes' at the inauguration and at CPAC. Now, the President has shared the thumbnail for a piece which included an image of the Pink Triangle, a symbol directly tied to concentration camps.

What is a Pink Triangle

The downward Pink Triangle was the gay equivalent of the yellow star for Jewish people under the Nazis.

It was used to notice out gay

Reclaiming the Pink Triangle: LGBT+ people and the Holocaust

When we think of symbols the Nazi regime forced people to wear, we think of the yellow star of David enforced on Jews. But another symbol, forced on gay men persecuted by the Nazis, has since been reclaimed by the very community the Nazis sought to oppress: the pink triangle.

Symbolism and imagery have always been at the forefront of human expression: from cave paintings to heraldry to modern logos. They contain been used to express and influence emotions not just in their creators but those around the creators: nostalgia, pride, adore and identity (as well as to sell things).

As well as using symbols to inspire belonging (the swastika) and fear (the death’s head skull or Totenkopf worn by the SS), the Nazi regime effectively used imagery to evoke feelings of ‘otherness’ in the populations under their control. This applied both to those they deemed ‘other’ otherwise known as ‘useless mouths’ and in those they deemed acceptable. The most famous of these symbols and imagery is the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear.

Before the Nazis

There was legislation against (male) queer acts in Germany pri