The History of the Hanky Code
Once a discreet language of desire, the hanky code has evolved into a lasting symbol of queer identity and culture.
“When I started going out in the ’70s, the hanky code was kind of de rigueur, especially at bars like the Eagle,” recalls Frank Nowicki, a member of the Centaur Motorcycle Club and the 1993 Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather titleholder. “People wore hankies in their back pockets. It was a quick way to let people know, right up front, what you were into, so that there was no confusion.”
Nowicki says that while the hanky code has expanded to include a rainbow of possibilities, and even though the earliest published hanky codes listed about a dozen options, there were generally only six or eight that people actually used in practice at the time — each carrying a clear meaning.
Gary Wasdin, executive director of the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, notes that while the hanky code is not solely about cruising for sex, it is almost inextricably linked to the practice.
“Cruising hasn’t gone away,” he says. “It’s still happening, just digitally. Cruising in parks and public spaces is no different than opening Scruff and scrolling through a bunch of small photos and looking for the people you like and then trying to make a connection with them — except now you have the speedy assistance of the Internet.”
The practice of cruising dates back centuries, whether through subtle nods, eye contact, and other nonverbal signals. The hanky code emerged in the late 1960s and early ’70s as a way to “flag” interest in certain activities, though its exact origins remain unclear.
“Like almost anything in popular culture, and when you’re studying marginalized communities, it’s not like someone documented this and actually wrote down, ‘Oh, somebody was wearing a hanky at the bar tonight,’” says Wasdin. “So it’s always difficult to figure out where and when it actually started. But generally, it became popular in the early ’70s, in places like San Francisco and New York City, where you had growing communities of queer population, and large pedestrian populations where people are on foot and can signal to one another. If you’re wearing a hanky while sitting in a car, it’s not doing anyone any good.”
Wasdin points to a hanky code chart published in The Village Voice in the early ’70s as one of the few surviving printed references to the practice. The scarcity of published materials meant that people learned the code by talking to friends and observing cruising practices in person. That same absence of printed guides also functioned as a safeguard, limiting the risk of exposure or the societal consequences someone could face if they were caught cruising or labeled a homosexual.
The origins of the hanky code are far from settled, notes Adam Campbell, an associate professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design and the author of Bound Together: Leather, Sex, Archives, and Contemporary Art.
“There was some indication that early motorcycle clubs, and the men who were a part of that subculture, would use hankies for maintenance of their motorcycles or completion of their look,” he says. “So there’s some evidence that the particular signaling practice might have started with what one needs to take care of a bike.”
Campbell says that even after years of research, including work in both the Leather Archives and informal personal collections, he was unable to pinpoint a single origin point for when flagging as part of the hanky code began.
“We know there were hanky codes published in the mid-1970s in some magazines, and Drummer magazine published its hanky code in 1977,” he says. “But while there were people who absolutely used the hanky code in cruising spaces or bars, there were also people who questioned its origins or made fun of it, or felt it wasn’t useful beyond a few key colors. There’s even a letter to the editor published in a 1976 edition of Drummer magazine claiming that the genesis of the hanky code is a media hoax, from an article on S&M that was published in The Village Voice in the summer of 1975.
“I was never able to confirm that claim,” Campbell adds. “But what that letter to the editor says is that they’re still laughing about it back in the press room. So it’s contested in some circles whether the hanky code came from the leather community at all.”
Regardless of its origins, the hanky code never fully died out, continuing to be practiced even when it fell out of favor. In more recent decades, the code has experienced a revival — and an expansion — incorporating additional fetishes, sexual acts, or identitarian pronouncements and assigning different shades or patterns to those meanings. Wasdin notes that this resurgence has been aided by the Internet and the ease with which information can now be shared more widely.
When it comes to navigating the seemingly unending list of color tones and shades that now comprise the code, Wasdin says, “No one knows everything, because the list has gotten so extravagantly long that it would be almost impossible to memorize. So people just memorize the colors they’re interested in.”
Wasdin says it’s exciting to see the hanky code in vogue once more, particularly at leather and fetish events such as Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend. Some colors have even been incorporated into leather gear, including armbands and vest piping.
“I think the hanky code has become less about cruising and is more about someone’s identity,” he says. “Nowadays, if I’m wearing a yellow hanky, it doesn’t mean I want to pee on you right now; it’s what I’m into in general, and I’m signaling something that is fundamentally a part of me.”
How well do you know your hanky code? Take our online quiz at metroweekly.com/hanky-code.
Originally published in the Centaur MC’s Official Guide to Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend 2026. Reprinted with permission. Click here to read the guide.
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