 A Writing on Those With Pink Triangle
History is interpreted in different ways by different people. To some, it is the history of conflicts between those with power. To some, it is the history of class conflicts. But what about reading history as the history of how powerful authorities have suppressed minorities and those different from us - or the “others.”
The story of Nazi Germany is the history of the suppression of minorities. Six million Jews were the victims of Nazi cruelty. But just those with yellow triangles? Many people are unaware of the other targets of Nazi oppression. Gypsies were also victims. Unfortunately, there were others, too. Who remembers those with pink triangles? One hundred thousand homosexuals were also subject to Nazi cruelty. Many of them were excluded from the "true" Germans by being marked with pink triangles; many of them were prisoned, castrated and executed. The Jews received material compensation for their suffering; they were also apologized to. But nothing was done for the persecuted homosexuals.
Put aside material and moral compensation, even their identity as “normal” or “healthy” beings would be denied in scientific circles until 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association decided to remove homosexuality on its list of illnesses. By 1990, the fact that homosexuality is not a disorder would be ultimately recognized by the United Nations Health Organization. If homosexuality was proven as a non-disorder, then would it mean that homophobia is a disorder and its cure is just to understand that nobody holds the hegemony of what is right way to live? Let people be free.
Homophobia refers to a combination of negative feelings toward homosexual people. Homophobia does not remain at the level of feeling, but also shapes the social, political, legal and economic structures of societies. It is not without reason that homosexuals share the bottom pyramid with other minorities on the degree of life satisfaction. In many countries, homosexuality is equated with crime and is met with harsh punishment. Homosexuals are discriminated in the work place as well. A revelation of homosexual identity for people in critical positions such as politics and sports in the spheres of “masculinity” can easily make them the target of homophobic rage. Like the homosexual mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, who was knifed in 2002. You may also remember the story of a football arbiter of 14 years in Trabzon , Halil İbrahim Akdağ, who was forced to leave his job after his homosexuality became public.
These are just public figures about whom we have heard. What about those who are at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid? In Turkey today I can count five very brutal cases of “homosexual honor killings.” As they were not known and uncared for while alive, they are not known or cared for after death. Invisibility is forever!
Homosexuals are everywhere but at the same time nowhere. They are your brother, sister, friend, neighbor, colleague.
They are the ones who have to love in quiet seclusion. It is hard to understand the heterosexual egoism on defining the terms of how to feel and love and whom to have these feelings for. In this age of cruelty, what we need is love nothing else. Love is irreducible and undefinable. Love is what you make of it!
BY GONCA ŞAHİN (IR/IV)
sahin_g@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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