days until our Collective Agreement expires, we are preparing, we are united and we will make change.

Why the Pink Triangle?

Pink Triangle Symbol
The Nazis used the pink triangle symbol to identify those in concentration camps imprisoned because of their homosexuality. Prior to World War II, pink was  a male colour, as an offshoot of red. Pink was chosen not because it meant the wearer was feminine, but because they liked other men. Every prisoner had to wear a triangle on his or her jacket, the color of which was to categorize him or her according “to his kind.” For example Jews had to wear the yellow star.
The inverted pink triangle, originally intended as a badge of shame, has become an international symbol of gay pride and the gay rights movement, and is second in popularity only to the rainbow flag.
The prisoners arrested under Paragraph 175 had to wear a pink triangle to identify themselves as gay. Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code from May 15th 1871 to March 10th 1994, which made homosexual acts a crime. While the number of homosexuals who died in concentration camps is hard to pin down, there’s a rough estimate of the number of men convicted for homosexuality at about 63,000 between 1933 and 1944 alone.
The Committee proudly uses the Pink Triangle symbol and its name as a tribute to those who were murdered in concentration camps and died in prisons. It is also a tribute to those who are currently being executed in some countries and to those who have suffered and continue to suffer all forms of discrimination because of their sexual orientation.