Last modified: 2015-06-27 by randy young
Keywords: triangle (pink) | triangle: up | nazi | canton | silence=death | act up | queer nation | hermaphrodite sign |
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The rainbow is a symbol of gay pride, as opposed to gay liberation, which used the pink triangle on various colored fields.
Jim Ferrigan, 14 Feb 2003
Although it was first used in Nazi Germany to identify gay males in concentration camps, the pink triangle only received widespread use as a gay pop icon in the early 1980s.
Christopher Pinette, 12 Jun 1996, quoting [ans93]
The pink triangle dates from Nazi-era stigmatization of homosexual prisoners by forcing them to wear the pink triangle much as Jews had to wear the yellow star. The pink triangle was never used, at least for gays, before the Nazis, as far as I know. The use now is an attempt to turn a stigma into a mark of pride.
Al Kirsch, 30 Jun 2002
Image by Jorge Candeias, 30 Jun 2002
The triangle, flown as a “gay” flag, is usually shown on white. Queer Nation’s transgender focus group,
Transgender Nation, created T-shirts and banners based on the pink on white version.
Anne Ogborn, 12 Dec 2005
Image by Jorge Candeias, 30 Mar 2005
The local variants I have seen of this flag (Baltimore & District of Columbia, United States) are black with an inverted pink triangle.
Steve Kramer, 01 Jul 2002
A similar design is the organizational symbol of Queer Nation.
Anne Ogborn, 12 Dec 2005
Image by Jorge Candeias and António Martins, 30 Mar 2005
A further variant sets the triangle slightly closer to the top edge to make room for the inscription "SILENCE = DEATH" in white underneath, a political statement obviously alluding to the mentioned pride symbolism.
Steve Kramer, 01 Jul 2002
The pink triangle on black is actually an organizational symbol for Act Up, a direct action organization fighting against the bureaucratic stupidity and homophobia that have killed so many during the AIDS crisis. The version with "SILENCE = DEATH" is particularly their symbol.
Anne Ogborn, 12 Dec 2005
The "SILENCE = DEATH" slogan is not so much an allusion to the Nazi persecution, but to society’s alleged silence about AIDS; the slogan is (obviously) of recent vintage.
Al Kirsch, 01 Jul 2002
Image by Jorge Candeias, 30 Mar 2005
Olive green (or olive drab) field with a large triangle, point down, centered on the flag; the triangle striped red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple, i.e. the colors of the basic Gay Pride Flag. Dimensions appeared to be 2 feet at the hoist by 3 feet on the fly, with the triangle about 18 inches high, i.e. half the hoist dimensions. Seen in Provincetown, the US East Coast’s gay Mecca.
Tom Gregg, 20 Aug 2001
Image by António Martins, 31 May 1999
A pink triangle is sometimes located at the hoist of the Pride Flag.
Don Hagemann, 04 May 1996
Image by António Martins, 31 May 1999
I’ve seen this in several variations, the two extremes of it being with a longer triangle extending to the middle of
the flag and the other having the shorten triangle.
António Martins, 31 May 1999
Image by António Martins, 16 Jan 2000
The Pink triangle in the upper hoist, usually pointed upwards, is an often used variation.
Steve Kramer, 06 May 1996
Image by António Martins, 16 Jan 2000
Often the pink triangle appears in a canton of blue or black. Blue is an obvious play off the US flag.
Steve Kramer, 06 May 1996
Image by António Martins, 16 Jan 2000
Black is a color associated with lesbianism, thus a black triangle on pink is sometimes used as a lesbian symbol.
Steve Kramer, 06 May 1996
Image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 June 2015
Flags with four pink triangles on a blue canton were seen at the Stonewall Pride Parade in Columbus, Ohio on 2012-06-16. The photos are available here and here. The triangles are arranged alternating, two pointing upwards and two pointing downwards, and the blue stripe is visibly darker than the canton.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 June 2015
Image by Tomislav Todorovic, 04 May 2015
The triangle may also be placed in center of the flag. Such flags were seen in Derry (Londonderry), Northern Ireland on 2013-08-17, during the demonstration in solidarity with the LGBT population of Russia and on 2014-03-28, during the
demonstration for equal marriage in Northern Ireland.
More photos can be seen in a YouTube video, posted in memory of an LGBT activist from Derry who took part in the first of these events. The flags can be seen 0:44 - 0:48 minutes and 0:58 - 1:02 minutes. Another photo of the flag, giving an incomplete view, can be found at
a blog webpage dedicated to the same person.
Tomislav Todorovic, 04 May 2015