Volunteer to set up San Francisco's Pink Triangle for Pride month
Volunteers needed for San Franciscos Pink Triangle display
Today is the first day of Pride Month, and one organization in San Francisco is looking for volunteers to help install the annual Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks. Patrick Carney joins Mornings on 2 with more on how you can help.
SAN FRANCISCO - It's June and in San Francisco, that means you might have noticed the rainbow-colored Pride flags along Market Street are flapping in the cool summer fog.
Call for volunteers
But another iconic symbol during Pride month that can be seen from several angles throughout the city is the Pink Triangle. In order for this long-standing reclaimed symbol of pride to be seen atop Twin Peaks, a lot of volunteers are needed. Organizers are looking for volunteers this Saturday to help put up the 31st annual Pink Triangle.
The very first Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks was done back in 1996 on a whim. It was meant to be a covert art installment and one where organizers hoped they wouldn't get arrested. One of the founders who helped place that very first upside-down triangle explained the history and meaning of the symbol.
The symbol's evolution
According to the group, The Friends of The Pink Triangle, the symbol was used by the Nazis in concentration camps to identify and shame homosexuals. The symbol was eventually reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community.
"The Nazis came up with a whole array of triangles. It was very systematic," said Patrick Carney from The Friends of the Pink Triangle. "They had yellow for Jews, blue for immigrants, black for asocial, purple for Jehovah's Witnesses, purple for gypsies, and they had pink for the gays, and the pink triangles are actually larger than the others, so guards could identify them from afar and they were especially singled out brutal treatment. And the Nazis used those who wore the pink triangle for medical experimentation in the latter years of the war. It's horrible."
Carney said even after the war, those who wore the pink triangle were put back into prison under discriminatory German law.
"Imagine surviving the Holocaust and still going to jail," Carney said. "It shows this irrational hatred toward certain groups. There's always a target, people to scapegoat and blame for things and distract. That's why we remember it."
A new meaning
Over time, The Pink Triangle has become a symbol of defiance, resistance and pride.
Organizers say the meaning behind the symbol is more important than ever as many rights for LGBTQ+ people are being stripped under the Trump administration.
Just this week, a federal appeals court ruled the Trump administration violated the constitutional rights of transgender members of the U.S. military by barring them from serving.
The placement of the 200 foot-wide symbol is placed atop Twin Peaks as an educational tool for all to see.
"Part of appreciating and celebrating where we are today for Pride Weekend, is understanding where we have been," the Friends of the Pink Triangle website reads. "It is a visible, yet mute reminder of man's inhumanity to man."
Bring a hammer!
What you can do:
The Friends of the Pink Triangle are looking for volunteers this Saturday, June 6, from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
800 volunteers will be on Twin Peaks getting the symbol up. Volunteers are asked to come early and to bring their own hammer to pound in more than 5,000 steel spikes.
If you'd like to volunteer to set up or to break down the Pink Triangle, you can find information to contact the group here. There is also a SignUp for specific tasks, including the take down of the Triangle on June 29.
The website says to bring work gloves, dress for warm and cold, wear closed-toe shoes, and to look out for poison oak. Water and some snacks will be provided.
Volunteers will also get a "fashionable Pink Triangle T-shirt" for their help. Carney showed off some pink visors and stocking caps the volunteers can wear during setup.
A ceremony follows the setup at 10:30 a.m. Mayor Daniel Lurie is scheduled to speak along with grand marshals of the Pride parade. This year's theme is Resistance in Action.
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