And sometimes symbols are meaningless, unless you wish to ascribe meaning to them from a sense of whimsy, or attach personal emotional significance to them, thus invoking a creative artistic process.

This morning, in a crystal clear frosty sky, a jet-trail was sparkling over the streets of London. Small gusts of wind had broken the twin lines of frozen vapour and formed a ribbon of circles and figures of eight, crescents and dashes and loops. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and eerie; it so closely mimicked ancient human hieroglyphics.

If the pattern was found carved in stone in some long-neglected cave, it would be puzzling scientists for decades to come. But perhaps only a couple of dozen people were sitting out on the street looking up at the sky in Covent Garden at that particular moment; perhaps only two or three remarked on it; perhaps I was the only one to watch that morning’s message in the sky fade to blue.

So Bizarre

Recently I saw the intentional superimposition of one powerful symbol over another, which was so bizarre that it has left me pondering the nature of symbols themselves. The two symbols were the swastika and the pink triangle. I saw them on the Internet, at a website called “Gay Nazis”. The text ran:

Internet Aryan Bootboys - Gay Nazis – Real Leathermen, Sweaty Skinheads and Aryan Deathboys - Oxymoron, identity politics gone too far, an excuse for snuffporn or just Geraldo-bait?”

The page contained a list of links under the headings: “Skinheads”, “Skin”, “White Power” and “Gays and Nazis”. For those unfamiliar with the Internet, a web page can contain text and graphics, like an electronic magazine. Some web pages also have sound and animation, but basically the Web is a way of presenting information in an intuitive, graphical way. By “clicking” a mouse on certain underlined words, you can be taken to another page with information on that topic, which may be part of the same website, or can be someone else’s. And then you click on a link on that page, and before you know it, you’ve travelled the world several times, reading different people’s contributions on a similar theme.

The author of this site had gathered together a list of links and put them all on the one lurid scarlet page. I must say first that I was so staggered by the swastika on the pink triangle that I didn’t bother following any links. I switched off my computer and gave my addled brain a rest. It took me a few days for curiosity to get the better of me; I returned to see what or who was behind it all.

I have written in the past of encounters with gay men who play around with the image of skinhead thuggery and Nazism; loyal readers will be aware that I’ve given them short shrift. On the other hand, I’ve also written about the cultural roots of the gay “leatherman” image, created by the graphic artist Tom of Finland, whose early sexual exploits were with German soldiers. I wrote then about the irony of gay men dressing up in leather uniforms with Muir caps and wearing a pink triangle badge, pointing out the paradoxical nature of such a fashion statement.

The links under the “Skinhead” heading are not controversial; listed are the Queer Skins of America, the European Gay Skin Association, and a rather endearing page on where in the world you can buy the best Fred Perry T-shirts and the other skinhead gear. Under the heading “Skin” there is, interestingly, the “Tom of Finland” website, and a few images of homoerotic sculpture from the Nazi period. Yes, sculpture. This is not a pornographic site.

It is under the heading “White Power” that there appear links that are truly sinister; for these are links to genuine “White Nationalist” pages, and very disturbing they are too. There is a highly sophisticated network of organisations dedicated to incitement to hatred; organised anti-semitism and racism is on the Net at a level I did not suspect.

Under the heading “Gays and Nazis” there is the appearance of some balance, for there is a lengthy and well-researched article by a woman called Christine Mueller about the question of whether the early Nazi movement was led by homosexuals, including stark and moving descriptions of the plight of homosexuals in the concentration camps.

She quotes a sociologist, Ruediger Lautmann: “Reading the many reports and asking the prisoners’ committees (which still exist today) about the prisoners with the pink triangles, one repeatedly learns that they were there, but nobody can tell you anything about them. Quantitative analysis offers a sad explanation for the extraordinary lack of visibility: the individual pink-triangle prisoner was likely to live for only a short time in the camp and then to disappear from the scene.

“There is also a report from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith on a Gay Nazi group in San Diego called the National Socialist League, describing their activities and their leader. On its application form, the NSL states, aparently without irony, its “determination to seek sexual, social, and political freedom.”

Victimhood

It is hard for me to sum up my reaction to this site, but I will try. What this man has done (and it can only have been a man who created this page) is make manifest the undercurrents of one extreme strand of gay male sexuality. In so doing, he has made clear its absurdity. The author says only this about himself: “The multicultis urged me to problematize my whiteness. So I did.” It seems to me that I have stumbled across an extraordinary example of a small mind playing with big and dangerous themes.

In my journey as a gay man, I have been gradually moving away from the symbol of the pink triangle as being representative of who I am. I have seen the originals on display in the museum in suburban Dachau. It is essentially a Nazi symbol of victimhood. I worry about the psychology of adopting such a symbol; for ultimately to identify with being a victim is to disempower oneself.

But, strangely, my visit to the Gay Nazi website has also robbed the swastika of some of its power. Those who identify with being an oppressor are oppressing themselves too. But I can only say that with my own awareness of suffering. I have no sympathy with those who promote hatred.

The links to the pages of the White Supremacists are proof that the author is either a supporter of their views, or believes he can remain neutral in the spirit of a detached observer. But when it comes to fascism, no ethical person can remain detached; no person with any humanity can remain unmoved. And no person with a soul can ever forget the horror that was Nazi Germany.

And if a gay man created this site, then it is a sad reflection on how easily we can separate from the realm of feelings.