page_title: Handkerchief code
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Handkerchief code / Origin
caption_attribution_description: English: Color Codes from Bob Damron’s Address Book (1980)
context_page_description: The handkerchief code is a color-coded system, employed usually among the gay male casual-sex seekers or BDSM practitioners in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe, to indicate preferred sexual fetishes, what kind of sex they are seeking, and whether they are a top/dominant or bottom/submissive.
  Wearing a handkerchief on the left side of the body typically indicates one is a "top", while wearing it on the right side of the body would indicate one is a "bottom". The hanky code was widely used in the 1970s by gay and bisexual men.
context_section_description: 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. It is thought that the wearing of bandanas by gay 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 (these bandanas were usually worn around the arm or hanging from the belt or in the back pocket of one's jeans).
  It is thought that the modern hanky code started in New York City in late 1970 or early 1971 when a journalist 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. Other sources attribute the expansion of the original red–blue system into today's code to marketing efforts around 1971 by the San Francisco department store for erotic merchandise, The Trading Post, promoting handkerchiefs by printing cards listing the meanings of various colors.
  Alan Selby, founder of Mr. 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.
  Bob Damron's Address Book is also notable when referencing the Handkerchief Code. Starting in 1964, a businessman by the name of Bob Damron published a book of all the gay bars he knew from his constant travels across the United States. “This book fit comfortably in the palm of your hand,” a description reads. “Despite its petite size, this book was an impressive accomplishment. Each one of the listings he had visited himself. Every last copy of the book he sold himself.” Bob Damron's Address Book also published a yearly chart for the meaning of each colored hanky under the title "COLOR CODES".
caption: Color Codes from Bob Damron's Address Book (1980)
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