The beltside key ring is one of the most enduring sartorial symbols of lesbian culture, one of the few stereotypes of our kind that’s both inoffensive and true. One oft-repeated theory says a Village Voice writer once jokingly suggested that gay men should dispense with this binary key system and develop a more complex system to reflect a broader taxonomy of sexual desire, thus sparking the creation of the hanky code. People involved in the leather scene used to (and sometimes still do) wear their keys clipped to their belt loops based on their sexual preferences: on the right side to indicate that the wearer is a bottom, and left if she’s a top.
#Gay flag colors meanings code#
This code followed the hanky code rules with keys hanging on the left indicating top, or keys on the right, bottom. In addition to gay and bi men, lesbians would also wear their keys hanging on a chain from their pockets to indicate top or bottom. In many cases, they provide a way of making an initial connection. They are self-labelling devices, material imbued with meaning, intended to provide enough information for cruising parties to determine the likelihood of an erotic match. Since we’d just started doing business with them we didn’t want to return the order, so we had to think up a way of selling all these extra dozens of bandanas…the hanky code took off like a whirlwind and spread internationally…we worked together deciding which colours were going to represent what.”įlagging is a way of communicating basic information without needing to speak. “We had gotten an order in from a bandana company and they had inadvertently doubled their order. Selby described the circumstances that led up to the publication of an initial list of coded colours:
S Leather was still based in London UK, well before there was a retail outlet in San Francisco. They worked together at this time, developing many of the products that are today considered classics of leather style. S Leather and Ron Ernst and Pat O’Brien of Leather ‘n’ Things. Since June is officially Pride month, it's time to fly your own flag high, but before you do, find out what the colors of the rainbow flag mean below.The code is generally believed to have been ‘officially’ launched in 1972 by Alan Selby of Mr. As the popularity of the flag grew, its design was adapted to meet demand, and by 1979, the six-color version became the official symbol for gay pride. Instead, it became a universal symbol for LGBT pride and began hanging from windows, flying high at demonstrations, and cropping up all over the country. Originally hand-stitched and hand-dyed with eight colors - pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and purple - the rainbow flag became much more than a simple reaction to homophobic behavior. In 1978, though, a gay artist and civil rights activist Gilbert Baker, alongside the Grove Street gay community in San Francisco, made the first rainbow pride flag as a response to an anti-gay community that began using the pink triangle the Nazis used to identify gay individuals. You know the Pride flag well, but what is the meaning of the rainbow flag? Its history is as interesting as it is colorful.įrom peace movements to political parties, the rainbow flag has been the symbol of dozens of historical and cultural organizations. You've seen it on buildings, bumper stickers, and front lawns, and you've waved one at parades, rallies, and protests.