Catalogue Number
NMLH.2020.5.201
Object Name
badge
Place
London; Berlin; Amsterdam; Paris
People
The Pink Paper
Events
EuroPride
Description
Silver metal pin badge with two holding hands. On the left arm's sleeve is a black heart, on the right sleeve is a pink heart. Between the arms forms a pink triangle.
The design was used at EuroPride 1992. EuroPride was the name of London Pride that year, to signal support for Europeâs LGBTQIA community beyond the UK. Alongside organising the London Pride parade, the organising committee sent letters, posters and pamphlets to other Pride events in Europe, including Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. Activist Peter Tatchell wrote on the state of LGBTQIA rights in Europe in the official EuroPride magazine, in association with The Pink Paper, as homosexuality was still illegal in several European countries at the time. More than 100,000 people marched through London followed by a concert headlined by Boy George, Lily Savage and Holly Johnson. Since London 1992, a different European city has hosted EuroPride starting with Berlin 1993.
The pink triangle symbol was reclaimed by the gay community after originally being a symbol of persecution. The symbol originated as a pink triangle cloth patch, used to identify gay men in prisons and concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Its reclaimed use spread through the gay liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s and is now positively associated with the wider LGBTQIA community.
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