The Pink Triangle @ 25

THE PINK TRIANGLE @ 25

A POTENT SYMBOL OF LGBTQ+ HOPE AND RESILIENCE WILL BE MORE VISIBLE THAN EVER

Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag is perhaps the most widely recognized symbol of LGBTQ+ culture. Created in San Francisco in 1978, it’s become ubiquitous in the Castro and elsewhere even if relatively few people can identify the symbology of its component stripes (indigo is for “serenity,” for instance). Predating the flag by decades is The Pink Triangle, originally a badge sewn onto the uniforms of homosexual men in Nazi-era concentration camps. Over the long road to queer liberation that followed in the decades after World War II, European and American activists began to reclaim it as a demonstration of pride in one’s identity against oppressive, homophobic authority. You can just make out Frank N. Furter wearing one in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), but the Pink Triangle’s true potency only came into being during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, when ACT-UP and other groups used it on signs emblazoned with the slogan “SILENCE = DEATH.” Over Pride weekend 1995, Patrick Carney and a group of volunteers assembled on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks to install an acre of hot-pink canvas that would be visible to Pride marchers along Market Street and elsewhere in the city. Initially a renegade craft project, the Pink Triangle was quickly embraced by politicians in San Francisco and beyond, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of LGBTQ+ Pride in the U.S. city most closely associated with the movement. 2020 is not just SF Pride 50. It’s also the 25th anniversary of the Pink Triangle. But because safety considerations surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have made a gathering 300 people on a foggy, early-morning hillside impossible, Carney opted to partner with Illuminate – the masterminds behind the Bay Lights, Harvey’s Halo, and other large-scale public artworks – on an even more ambitious variation: Illuminate the Pink Triangle. This year, the slope beneath Twin Peaks won’t be covered with canvas, but with 2,700 LED nodes installed by a small, specialized team. The million marchers and celebrants that everyone had expected won’t be there to witness it in person during this historic year, but its glow will be apparent to people in the East Bay. After an $85,000 crowdfunding campaign to solicit community support for this mesmerizing beacon of hope triumphing over adversity, a Global Grand Lighting ceremony will take place on the evening of Saturday, June 27, led by Carney and Ben Davis, the founder and “chief visionary officer” of Illuminate. Further, instead of coming and going in under two days, Illuminate the Pink Triangle will remain in place through July 10, timed with the conclusion of the AIDS 2020 conference. Originally scheduled to be held in San Francisco, it has, like so many other things, gone virtual – a gathering of scientists and advocates dedicated to fighting one virus and nearly thwarted by another. In this difficult year, as ever, hope conquers all.

thepinktriangle.com