Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.371.55
Object Name
Badge
Title
Lesbians and Gay Men in Unison
People
UNISON
Description
Purple badge with text in white reading "Lesbians and Gay Men in Unison". On the left side, there are two female symbols connected together, intersecting with an outlined pink triangle. The gender symbol for female, also known as the Venus symbol, is a circle above a cross. Two interlocking female symbols like this represent the lesbian community.
The title is a pun on the term 'unison' meaning connected, as well as being the name of the trade union this badge was representing.
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.
Multimedia
