Pink Triangle Park and Memorial (Intersection of Castro, Market and 17th Streets, across the street from Harvey Milk Plaza) – This triangular shaped mini-park is the first permanent, free-standing memorial in America to the thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people sent to Nazi death-camps in World War II.

The park’s centerpiece is an arrangement of 15 sierra-white granite pylons, each inlaid at the top with a pink triangle. Together, the pylons form a larger triangle set in pink gravel, with flowers and shrubbery surrounding it. During the Nazi era (1933-1945), an estimated 15,000 gay men and women were sent to concentration camps, where many of them suffered torture and death. Each pylon in the park represents 1000 lives.

The triangle theme recalls the Nazis forcing gay men to wear pink triangles sewn to their clothes as an identifier and badge of shame. Lesbians, as well as prostitutes and women who refused to bear children, were forced to wear black triangles.