— The History Behind Gay Flagging and How to Do It Today
Starting as a way to subvert homophobic sodomy laws, flagging remains an important part of queer spaces today.
By Evelyn Bauer
If you’ve been to a historic gay bar or queer leather archive, you’ve likely spotted a subtle accessory that you may not realize is an iconic part of LGBTQ+ history: a simple colorful bandana.
Flagging, also known as the “hanky code,” is a way to wordlessly tell other queer people your sexual preferences. In a nutshell, it involves wearing different colors of bandanas in your pockets — left or right, respectively, to signal top/dom or bottom/submissive roles — to indicate different kinks, fantasies, and other sexual interests to the world. The system originated in the ‘70s, a time when it was illegal in most places to have queer sex. Like leather bars and BDSM spaces, flagging is an iconic part of queer history that’s alive and well to this day.
If you’re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of hanky code, you’ll want to do some research before grabbing your bandanas. What significance does the hanky code hold in queer history? What do all of the colors in the hanky code mean? Should you go to the bar wearing a handsome handkerchief hanging from your back pocket tomorrow night? Let’s get down to business and answer all these pressing questions.
What is flagging?
Flagging’s origins can be traced to the prosecution of queer people and queer sex, as researcher and author Jack Gieseking tells Them. In the 1960s, state sodomy laws were introduced across the U.S. to criminalize queer sex, though local laws banned cruising as early as the 1920s. Two men who entered a hotel together could be arrested on suspicion of sodomy, and so queer sex was often had in dark public places with low foot traffic, like parks, waterfronts, subway stations, and other abandoned or industrial areas that weren’t surveilled.
As a result, communities developed a system of “flagging,” using colored handkerchiefs to subtly indicate sexual preferences among those in the know, usually as a signal to other queer people. “I think [flagging] comes out of gay men not being able to talk so much in a lot of these spaces, which tend to be quiet and outdoors,” Gieseking says. “Here’s a way to just signal what I want.”
People who are well-versed in the meaning of different hankies can tell, at a glance, what sexual activities others are looking for. Folks can indicate what kind of sex they’re looking for by using different colors and if they want to top or bottom by placing it in their left or right pocket. For example, if someone has a red hanky in their left pocket, they are looking to fist someone. If the red hanky is in someone’s right pocket, it means they want to get fisted.
Make sure you know what you’re flagging, and remember that codes like these are not a replacement for having a conversation about what you and your prospective partner are looking for. Consent is key, and you should never assume that somebody is immediately down for whatever they’re flagging without further communication.
What is the history of the hanky code?
The hanky code’s exact origins are difficult to pin down. According to Nikita Shepard, a Columbia University Ph.D. candidate studying queer history, we know it rose in popularity in the 1970s among gay urban leather scenes, particularly in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Many male-male sexual cultures post-World War II were organized around motorcycle clubs, leather bars, and sadomasochistic sexual practices, where patrons would convey their sexual interests via cues in their clothing or accessories, such as wearing keys on the left or right belt loops of their jeans. According to Shepard, some of the earliest recorded versions of the hanky code were found in one of the definitive guides to sexuality and subculture in the late 20th century: the second edition of Larry Townsend’s Leatherman’s Handbook, first published in 1983.
Gieseking says one of the earliest archived mentions of the hanky code in lesbian spaces can be found in the very first issue of On Our Backs, a lesbian erotic magazine, published in 1984. This publication featured a variety of hanky colors beyond the code published in Leatherman’s Handbook, like white lace for Victorian scenes, maroon for menstruation, and pink for breast fondling. Gieseking says this is an example of how queer people reinterpreted the hanky code and made it their own depending on their scene.
“There is no central queer body of people defining what queerness is; if there was, queers would take it apart,” Gieseking says. “It’s impossible to find one central body of knowledge about anything about us. And you’ll get these different versions because you’re going to get different geographies and different groups of people over time at different places, and they’ll get a hold of one list, and they’ll add to it.”
Because of this lack of standardization, you’ll find varying online hanky codes with dozens of different colors, and huge differences in meaning represented by a small shift in shade. It’s hard to imagine that people could pick up on whether a hankie was yellow or apricot in the low light of a club or park, which could theoretically lead to some confusing and unfortunate sex.
What Do the Different Colors Mean?
While there is no singular authority on what specific colors mean in the hanky code, there are some hankies that sources agree are among the oldest and most enduring colors, according to Nikita Shepard. These colors include red for fisting, yellow for water sports (or piss play for those who don’t know), dark blue for anal sex, black for sadomasochism, and brown for scat play.
While these might be the “original” flagging colors, the hanky code has expanded well beyond these five, so feel free to have fun and figure out what hanky color ties into your particular niche kinks.
Like many aspects of queer culture, flagging has only expanded into online spaces, meaning many more colors have been added to the code. Because anyone can add to the hanky code on the world wide web, these new colors can be subjective. Some versions of different flag codes include this key from LGBTQ+ history non-profit The Saint Foundation, another list from leather organization ONYX, and this 2010’s blog dedicated to the hanky code. And if you need to add a new one, keep in mind that you’re following a beautiful tradition of decentralized queer knowledge and culture. Have at it!
Flagging in the 21st Century
Despite the rich history of flagging, the prevalence of images laying out the hanky code online, and the plain fun of having a secret sartorial code that only other queers understand, the hanky code isn’t as popular today as it once was. You may still see people flagging at leather or cruising bars, but the practice is much less popular than it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Gieseking says that, to them, flagging always feels like it’s about to have a resurgence, but the increased surveillance of public spaces, and the closure of many queer public-private spaces, has removed most of the places where people could or would need to flag.
“The privatization of public spaces, public parks, and their policing — which is [due to] a white middle-class concern — really erased a lot of sex in public,” Gieseking points out.
Gieseking points to a number of other reasons why flagging’s popularity is, well, flagging, from the rise of digital surveillance to a decline in cruising spaces and queer bars. But like the hanky code itself, the practice has moved increasingly online onto platforms like TikTok and Instagram where people who off their colorful bandanas. And while the hanky code’s popularity is constantly waxing and waning due to shifts in queer spaces, the benefits of the code stay consistent.
“Hanky code both reflected and contributed to the sex-positive, nonjudgmental, liberationist attitudes towards erotic desire that gay, leather, and kink communities have long led the way in promoting,” Shepard says.
The flagging code ultimately is an important part of queer community building and history that gives people access to information about a wide variety of erotic practices of which they otherwise may not have learned. By placing erotic acts such as fellatio and anal intercourse, both considered relatively “vanilla,” alongside acts that are often considered extreme and outlandish, the hanky code reduced, and still reduces, sexual stigma among the queer community. It’s important to keep celebrating queer sexuality and kink, especially in the face of the larger puritanical society.
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