Volunteers install giant pink triangle on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks
The giant, pink triangle can be seen from 15 miles away. (The Pink Triangle)
A giant pink triangle has been installed on top of San Francisco’s Twin Peaks in an annual display for Pride Month.
The pink triangle can be seen from 15 miles away, and as it was once a symbol used by Nazis to identify homosexuals, it commemorates gay victims of the holocaust.
Volunteers climbed to one of the two 281m summits, hence the name Twin Peaks, to install the pink cloth secured with spikes for the 24th year in a row.
According to the triangle’s official website, the installation is a “commemoration of the gay victims who were persecuted and killed in concentration camps in Nazi Germany starting in 1933 through the end of WWII.
“The pink triangle symbol has since evolved into an important reminder for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community of the continuing homophobia and inhumanity against them and other repressed minorities around the world.”
The first pink triangle was installed in secret, so the founder wouldn’t be arrested
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Patrick Carney who installed the first pink triangle at Twin Peaks in 1995 said: “Twenty-four years ago, we came up in the dead of night so we wouldn’t be arrested.”
“The world is not yet done with the hate,” a volunteer visiting from Ukraine told the newspaper. “We need to keep showing up and showing up.”
Volunteer Rick Bowles put in the final spike and said: ““I recall being called a fag when I was a kid. This triangle is important.
“It reclaims a symbol of negativity and hate, and turns it into something positive.”
After installing the 61m-wide triangle in the fastest time ever (36 minutes), they held a commemoration ceremony complete with a performance from the San Francisco gay and lesbian marching band.
A volunteer said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle: “The rest of the weekend is full of wonderful debauchery. This gives you something to think about, and not just go off and get drunk.”
