At Sachenhausen, Buchenwald, and various other Nazi death camps, the inmates were identified by several insignia: Jewish victims wore the tragic yellow star; political prisoners wore a red triangle; green triangles identified the infamous Kapo, criminal trustees who assisted the S.S. guards. Homosexuals wore pink triangles.

There exists no firm estimate of how many Gay people were incarcerated in the concentration camps, however Magnus Hirschfeld, author of The Sexual History of the World War, and others estimate that between 200,000 and 250,000 people died in prison camps solely because of their sexual preference. Many Gay people also were included within other victim groups, identified as Jews, or members of resistance organizations. In fact they were represented in all groups, as Gays always have been.

Because of wartime labor shortages that prompted the Nazis to resort to slave labor battalions, they decided that homosexuals could be "rehabilitated" in a variety of ways, the most common method being surgical castration.

In modern Germany, the survivors of such mutilation remain as tangible evidence of this forced "therapy," and as witness to the ultimate consequences of collective "diagnosis." The post-war West German government provided some compensation to the few Jewish and political survivors of the camps, but homosexual victims were not compensated as an oppressed group. Laws against sexual variation instituted by the Nazi regime remained in West German legal codes for years after the war, according to James L. Steakley in his book The Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Germany.

This particular historic record of Nazi oppression against sexual variation remains so obscure as to be sometimes greeted with disbelief, but anyone with a fair and inquiring mind cannot help but ask why this particular historic tragedy should remain an esoteric and largely undiscussed subject.

There remains a widespread tendency among the uptight to protect tender minds by censoring sources of information concerning the magnitude of sexual variation in the world at large, and historic figures in particular. A recent Italian television series on the life of Leonardo DaVinci provides an example of how history is managed. One episode concerned the young DaVinci and his friends being hauled in before the local inquisition. The English narration as seen in America described the case as "heresy," thereby protecting our American sensibilities from the dreadful historic facts of his well known homosexuality.

The range of human achievement thus obscured is far too vast to list. Examples of sexual variation include Socrates, Plato, Sappho, Shakespeare, Gertrude Stein, Whitman, Melville, Tchaikovsky, Emma Goldman and many, many other valuable members of the human family. These historic models relate directly to the curious notion that sexual variation is somehow either a cause or an evidence of decadent civilization. In fact, free expression of sexual variety has been more commonly in evidence during higher historic eras of cultural expression: in the great age of the Islamic world, in several African civilizations such as Ghana, Benin and Siwan, the Ukiyo period in Japan and, of course, classical Greece, Rome, for example, fell after Christianity (and sexual shame) became dominant in the West.

It is apparent that, until recently, human sexual pluralism has remained absent from our history texts. The achievements of women, black people and other groups have remained obscure through a similar process of selective attention. The manipulation of facts in order to fit preconceived stereotypes (categorical prejudgment) is described by Gordon Allport in his study of prejudice. The very term homosexual often elicits negative feelings (or perhaps nervous giggles) among otherwise sophisticated people.

What or Who is Gay

The very old term "Gay" generally defines homoerotic activity or attraction of any form or degree. The term "straight" (originally a Gay word, like many others in common usage) describes the lack of such activity, with no derogation implied. In view of past bigotry, the description Gay is not without a certain irony, but it also expresses a profound desire and historic ability to transcend oppressive experience, and be happy.

Homoerotic activity is quite common among younger males who are otherwise heterosexual. This is no cause for alarm--homosexuality is not known to be contagious. This is merely attraction to what feels good, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, "Trusting the Authority of your senses."

Fear and Loathing

Homophobia, the fear and hatred of sexual variation, is measured by several attitude measures, including the ATHSM (Smith 1971; MacDonald 1972; 1974). These measures reveal interesting correlations between homophobia and authoritarian characteristics, including cognitive rigidity, tendencies to impute maliciousness in others, and status consciousness.

Varieties of American bigotry have employed homophobia as a weapon of political oppression. A conspicuous example of political-sexual manipulation was apparent in the career of the late and unlamented Senator Joseph McCarthy. (Tripp, 1975).

The use of sexual taboo and superstition as a political weapon is still present in America. As a basic question concerning the personal freedom of individual citizens, consensual sexuality and identity must first of all be defined as a civil liberties issue. This has been recognized by a number of groups who actively support the movement for freedom of sexual and affectional preference. Supporting groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, the American Friends Service Committee and many churches. The ACLU has published a handbook outlining the rights of Gay people against archaic oppressive laws still existing in some states.