Others say it was because in ancient Greece it symbolized reconciliation and justice. In physics, lambda signifies change that may be the reason. It is not known for sure why lambda was chosen. The International Gay Rights Congress adopted it in 1974. In 1970, the Gay Activists Alliance chose the Greek letter, which looks like a lowercase “y” flipped upside down, as the symbol for the gay movement. Lambda is an “officially” recognized symbol of pride. The other symbols of our pride don’t carry with them the baggage the triangle bears. Claiming a symbol once used to label gays for prison and death as a symbol of pride is a way of overcoming the scars of oppression that the symbol once represented, according to the reasoning behind the symbols use.
The gay and lesbian community began using the symbol as a sign of pride in the 1970s to upturn their oppression. “ the lowest caste in camp… Theirs was an incluble predicament and virtually all of them perished.”Ī pink triangle over a yellow one forming a Star of David marked the people who were even lower than the lowest in camp, gay Jews.īecause Nazi records of concentration camps are incomplete and often falsified, there is no reliable way to know how many gays and lesbians may have died in German death camps. “The fate of homosexuals in the concentration camps can only be described as ghastly,” Eugen Kogon, who was a political prisoner of the Nazis for six years, said in his book The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them - available on Amazon.
A yellow triangle pointing upward marked a Jew.īut gay men were the most mistreated of the prisoners, many say. Black triangles labeled vagrants and antisocials, the category into which most sources report lesbians were placed. Jehovah’s Witnesses, emigrants and others each got their own color, too. Red triangles marked political prisoners green labeled habitual criminals. Other colors and configurations denoted other prisoners. Gay men were forced to wear downward-pointing pink triangles on their sleeves. During World War II, Nazis herded gays and many others into concentration camps along with Jews. Perhaps more people know the origin of the pink triangle than any other symbol. “Whether the general populace recognizes the rainbow flag or other queer symbols for what they are, the two primary camps in the struggle for queer civil rights certainly do,” one man wrote in an internet post. Whether most people recognize the symbols is not clear, but most gay people do - and our staunchest enemies do, too.
Some of us do it so other gay people can identify us others say the symbols notify the world that they are lesbian or gay. The exact reasons we choose to put these symbols on our clothes or cars are usually personal and vary a lot. We are attempting to reclaim the bits of history that remain - and openly make tomorrow’s history. Today, many closet doors are flung open and the symbols of lesbian and gay pride are displayed prominently. Rainbow flags, pink triangles and that odd wishbone-like Greek letter called lambda are the most popular symbols today, but there were many others before them.Īnd, by the way, what does a lavender rhinoceros have to do with gay pride? Stay tuned.īecause our community has been forced into hiding and secrecy throughout much of time, lots of our history was locked into closets that were never opened. There might even be one tattooed on your partner’s arm.
#Is a triangle a gay pride symbol windows#
Sticking on bumpers, hanging around necks and dangling in front of windows are a few of the places you’ll find the symbols of lesbian and gay pride. At least there’s not a lavender rhinoceros on your bumper.