S Leather in San Francisco, claimed that he created the first hanky code with his business partners at Leather 'n' Things in 1972, when their bandana supplier inadvertently doubled their order and the expanded code would help them sell the extra colors they had received. The red and blue handkerchiefs and their significance were already in existence, and meanings were assigned to other colors as well.Īlan Selby, founder of Mr. The Trading Post, a department store specializing in erotic merchandise, began promoting handkerchiefs in the store and printing cards with their meanings. In San Francisco, the signs began appearing around 1971. Others say that it was around 1971 by the San Francisco department store for erotic merchandise, The Trading Post. Some say it started in New York City in late 1970 or early 1971 when a journalist (not Michael Musto) for the Village Voice joked that instead of simply wearing keys to indicate whether someone was a "top" or a "bottom", it would be more efficient to subtly announce their particular sexual focus by wearing different colored hankies. wishes to improve on a 2017 rainbow flag redesign revealed at gay pride festivities in Philadelphia last. It is thought that the wearing of bandanas by men originated in San Francisco after the Gold Rush, when, because of a shortage of women, men dancing with each other in square dances developed a code wherein the man wearing the blue bandana took the male part in the square dance, and the man wearing the red bandana took the female part.Ĭlaims to when the more modern hanky code started vary. The rainbow flag meaning rests not in its individual colors but in the symbolism of the. Color-coded, this system has been historically used by gay men to indicate preferred sexual fetishes, what kind of sex they are seeking, and whether they are a top or bottom. The handkerchief code (also known as the hanky code, the bandana code and flagging) is the wearing of various colored bandanas around the neck was common in the mid- and late-nineteenth century among cowboys, steam railroad engineers and miners in the Western United States.
In 1978, that changed when Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag. Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for. Here, we take a look at the tools gay men have historically used to determine who is into what. Before the rainbow flag, the pink triangle, used to mark gay people in Nazi Germany, was a symbol for the gay rights movement. But questions like “into” and “looking for” have been around a lot longer than the dating apps we use today to ask them. Some may think that the gay community’s obsession with finding out the sexual proclivities of a potential partner is a trend of today.