(Brown triangles were used for Romani people, red for political prisoners, green for criminals, blue for immigrants, purple for Jehovah's Witnesses and black for "asocial" people, including prostitutes and lesbians.) Just as Jews were forced to identify themselves with yellow stars, gay men in concentration camps had to wear a large pink triangle. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates 100,000 gay men were arrested and between 5,000 and 15,000 were placed in concentration camps. As part of their mission to racially and culturally “purify” Germany, the Nazis arrested thousands of LGBT individuals, mostly gay men, whom they viewed as degenerate. Homosexuality was technically made illegal in Germany in 1871, but it was rarely enforced until the Nazi Party took power in 1933. It wasn’t until the 1970s that activists would reclaim the symbol as one of liberation.
![triangle gay pride symbol triangle gay pride symbol](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81+bDlntfcL._SX425_.jpg)
In Nazi Germany, a downward-pointing pink triangle was sewn onto the shirts of gay men in concentration camps-to identify and further dehumanize them. Arena_footer_logo arena_group_logo ico_angle_double_right ico_angle_down ico_angle_left ico_angle_right ico_angle_up ico_arrow_left ico_arrow-box-round-topright ico_bloglovin ico_calendar ico_caption_toggle ico_caret_down ico_caret_left ico_caret_right ico_caret_up ico_cart ico_close_heavy ico_close ico_comments_squared ico_comments ico_diamond ico_email ico_ext_link ico_facebook_square ico_facebook ico_flipboard ico_forward_slash ico_forward ico_googleplus ico_hamburger_flipped ico_hamburger ico_heart_empty ico_heart ico_info ico_instagram ico_linkedin ico_lock ico_maven_key ico_minus ico_mute ico_muted ico_new_hamburger ico_options ico_pinterest ico_plus ico_print ico_reddit ico_reply ico_retweet ico_search ico_share ico_social_share ico_soundcloud ico_star_empty ico_star ico_tiktok ico_toc ico_tumblr_link ico_tumblr ico_twitter ico_unmute ico_unmuted ico_web ico_whatsapp ico_youtube maven-footer maven-full pinterest-pin-itīefore the pink triangle became a worldwide symbol of gay power and pride, it was intended as a badge of shame.