pink triangle

Much like the black triangle, the pink triangle was used during the Nazi regime to mark homosexuals. Now the pink triangle is used by homosexual men everywhere to express solidarity with each other. Some say the pink triangle also connotes oppression. Many homosexuals choose an alternative symbol of unity, the rainbow flag.

About 7 years ago I went to Poland on an emissary from my country (Israel) to see concentration and destruction camps there. Now, I knew all about the different triangles (pink for gay, black for antisocials, green for criminals, yellow stars of David for jews, red for political prisoners -mostly socialists- and other colours for gypsies and other undesirables), but until I got to Auschwitz I didn't know that they had combinations! for example a socialist jew would get the "honour" of wearing a Star of David made up from a yellow and red triangles!

I stood there, thinking to myself: "hmmm... I'm a socialist gay jew, what kind of construction they would have had to make for me?!"

British Hi-Fi company

I recall a work of art. Not on canvas, more a mobile sculpture. It was a turntable, back in the day when there was little choice of real high-fidelity music reproduction. It wasn't just any turntable, it was designed to work with the acoustic properties of the vinyl disks it was playing. The whole design ethic was to use materials in such a way to extract the best sound and make the equipment beautiful into the bargain.

The Pink Triangle Partnership company was founded in London, UK in 1980, manufacturing hi-fi audiophile turntables. They were responsible for many innovations, including an inverted sapphire main bearing and acrylic turntable platters. The company are famed for their products' excellent sound reproduction, innovative design and good looks.

Surprisingly, in the age of the CD and DVD, they still make a player for vinyl records (you do remember LPs, I'm sure). The Tarantula has received rave reviews in Europe and America, and supports their line of more conventional modern hifi.

Update: Sadly, the company appears to have ceased trading, in the face of a falling vinyl market.

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http://www.vinylengine.com/library/pink-triangle.shtml

The quotation on my pink triangle pin reads:

”In   Germany  they   first   came for the Communists, and   I

didn’t   speak   up   because   I wasn’t   a   Communist.

Then   they   came for the Jews, and   I didn’t speak

up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for

the   trade unionists,   and I didn’t   speak up

because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then

they   came for the   Catholics, and   I

didn’t speak up   because   I was a

Protestant. Then they came for

me –- and   by that time

no one   was left

to speak up.”

~Pastor Martin Niemoller

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Kinda makes it seem like more of a human rights issue than a gay issue, huh?