GORDON BROWN HONOURS GAY NAZI VICTIMS

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has included gays and lesbians in his statement to honour the victims of the Nazi holocaust.

The statement was issued a day ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, which was marked yesterday.

“The theme of this Holocaust Memorial Day is Standing up to Hatred,” said Brown.

“The murder of six million Jews and countless Roma, Poles and other Eastern Europeans, gay men and lesbians, trade unionists, disabled people and political and religious opponents of the Nazis was not a sudden and frenzied explosion of hate, but a horror that had been methodically and carefully planned.

“Hatred may begin with small acts of prejudice or bigotry – but it rarely ends with them. That is why we all have an obligation to stand up to hatred.

“This Holocaust Memorial Day I hope that people all across Britain will join me in renewing a personal commitment to resisting hatred wherever it is found today.”

It is recorded that between 1933 and 1945 more than 100,000 men were arrested and registered by police as homosexuals, and of these, some 50,000 were officially sentenced.

The pink triangle symbol, now used by the gay rights movement, is based on the pink triangle badge used to mark homosexuals in the Nazi concentration camps.

Most recent research estimates that almost 55,000 gays were killed in the camps.