The Queer Code: Secret Languages of LGBTQ+ Art

Explore the visual symbols and language used by LGBTQ+ artists and communities to suggest hidden identities. Oscar Wilde and his circle famously wore a green carnation as a signifier of their identities. These flowers are just one example of the many visual symbols throughout history, which hinted at secret sexualities and identities that had been hidden. So what other coded symbols can we find in the history of queer art? How did today's artist reference and re-use them? And how have hidden symbols transitioned to a wider and more expressive queer visual language?

In this new series of three films, Not Seeing Straight: Celebrating Queer Art and Lives, we LGBTQ+ explore artists and their artworks. Since legal changes have in recent decades made the lives of queer people more open and free, so too has the art produced by LGBTQ plus artists. The world of queer arts opened up, becoming bolder, louder and more mainstream.

Narrated by Afton Moran
Produced by National Galleries of Scotland and HeeHaw

Special thanks to:
Glasgow Women's Library
Equality Network
Ru Jazzle

[evasage]

this video is so wonderful and important, and so so well done! Thank you, your videos mean so much to me and are helping me come to terms with my queer identity.

[sk-b]

I love Oscar Wilde but I never knew about the green carnation! Thank you for the video, I learned a lot

[pibbitybibbity]

Regarding the pink triangle use in the Nazi Germany concentration camps: a bit of history that most people don’t know is that when the allies defeated the Nazis and liberated the concentration camps, the survivors wearing pink triangles denoting their homosexuality were NOT set free. Because homosexuality was illegal in Germany (and in most of the world at that time), they were were sent directly to prison!

[absurdum-the-artist]

I live in a country where being openly queer is illegal and extremely unsafe, so seeing those hidden codes is very uplifting and inspiring

[charlesprice]

I had a straight Air Force commander in the 70's and 80's whose wife chose his civilian clothes becasue he had no sense of style. While visiting the large nearby city of the deployed base, he wore the white shoes, with white pants, his wife had selected for him, not knowing they were a signal to gay men, and was followed by another man for most the afternoon. Until he asked the man why. The man explained the meaning of what he was wearing and apologized for any imposition. The commander told him he didn't' "swing that way" but appreciated the complement. Not being a particularly handsome guy, he didn't think anyone even noticed him.

[traekas]

In the 1980s, I used to wear color coded bandannas in the back pocket of my 501’s if I was going out to the bars. So, the “hidden” code wasn’t just for Gay guys. It was for Gay women, too. Saved me from some awkward misunderstandings, too, as I recall. 😊.

[randydickison]

Growing up as a queer boy in the 1960's and 70's, I learned that there were secret codes some homosexuals used to "safely" identify themselves to others. I wasn't able to really learn those codes, and I was afraid to let people know I was a homosexual. I heard of the hankey code, but I didn't know what color meant what or which pocket to put the hankey in. The only "gay" thing I knew was that many, but not all gay guys spoke with a false lisp. I just didn't like trying to talk like that. I didn't like how it felt to me or how I sounded talking with a lisp. Besides, everyone knew talking with a lisp was a stereo type for gay boys and men anyways, and I feared anyone figuring out my secret. Hearing all the hatred in the 70's and 80's, and the jokes about gay people, then getting beaten up badly a few times, and stabbed when I was fourteen because some boys figured out that I wasn't interested in girls, I decided to just live in the closet totally alone. When I became an adult, I was even afraid to try going to a gay bar, because I was afraid someone might see my van parked there. I envied those gay people that were brave enough to be open about their sexuality, and actually find relationships and friends that were also gay. I never dated. I never had any kind of a long-term relationship. I never even tried to make friends with anyone. The only people I talked to were at work. None of them ever knew who I was. Choosing to hide who I was for almost all of my life was a bad decision that only caused me more pain, but it was the only way I knew how to survive. I will always regret doing that. I finally just couldn't stand my life anymore, and I came out when I was sixty years old. Yeah, that was way too late in life to admit who I am. I'm still alone at age sixty-five. That's mainly my fault, because I kept myself from learning how to meet people and have a relationship. Part of it was because of how I was treated by society as I was growing up. Those things caused emotional damage. Still, I think I'm better now.

[ozvoyager]

As a gay man who was around in the 70s and 80s I can testify that almost nobody actually understood, much less followed, the hanky code. To start with, there were so many different colours denoting different behaviours or acts that it was all just too overwhelming. The average gay guy might have picked up on one or two that were more obvious (e.g. yellow), but since almost nobody knew them all, there was really no point in deploying the code. Also, a lot of guys just wore a hanky in their back pocket, or wherever, as a fashion choice. If you actually approached them thinking it was a signal, you'd generally find out they had no idea what it was supposed to mean. Most guys didn't even know that one pocket was supposed to signify active, while the other was passive, in relation to each act. (To this day I can't remember which was which). Anyone who maintains that it was actually a widely used code is, to be frank, full of shit.

[jakemoeller]

Being "a friend of Mary" was a verbal note to acquaintances.

[ktkat]

Polari is very easy to learn. I did and I am a straight female. How did I do it? Simple I listened to the British Radio show Around the Horne which is still available on You Tube. Two characters called Julian and Sandy basically spoke Polari most of the time. They were very camp and very funny. The BBC simple did not understand what was going on. The ones that did know kept it to themselves. Julian and Sandy skits are also still available on You Tube. They are fantabuloso!

[SydBaron]

Male peacock? All peacocks are male. A female peafowl is called a peahen. In general, male birds are brightly coloured while females are less so or even dull, in contrast to humans.

[j_l]

Really interesting topic and fabulous editing. I absolutely love your videos! Please continue on producing them!

[freg]

The black triangle “antisocial” symbol was mostly used to represent the Roma/Sinti. My great grandmother and her family were Slovenian, so they were put to work in Italy instead of being killed like in most Yugoslavic countries. I wish more people knew about the Porajmos, over 90% of us were killed

[rodiculous]

holy hell this is professional quality, super underrated channel

[auldthymer]

I hadn't heard about the green carnation, but in New York(?) men would wear a pansy in their lapels; hence the slur.

[RevRod]

I was obsessed with green carnations as a kid! I had no idea I was queer at the time but this makes so much sense now!

[williamjones]

I do remember going to bars in the early 80's when the hanky code was extensive. However me being slightly color blind I had to be careful about its interpretation.😋

[dianele]

It's strange but some people may copy the style just because they like it not knowing it's supposed to mean something.

[feloniousbutterfly]

Rome began rather indifferent to queerness, but as imperialism grew there, so did its irrational hate for queerness. Imperialism, authoritarianism, colonialism are and always have been our greatest enemies. Never forget that.

[rottensquid]

I've been giving some bit of thought to the concept of the "queer aesthetic" of late, and I've come to an interesting notion. I think queer aesthetic is marked by an absence, rather than a presence. We don't always consciously realize how utterly pervasive the "straight" code is in art, how it influences so many aspects of our aesthetics, until some piece of it is removed, reversed, subverted, or otherwise shifted. And voila, there it is, the "queer aesthetic." I think this is why the queer aesthetic can appear even without the artist realizing, because the straight code is, by and large, entirely subconscious. And so queer artists might not even know when they've subverted it. Art is largely an expression of feeling. So what feels right to a queer artist isn't the same as what feels "normal" or whatever to a straight audience.

Yet perhaps there's also something about the subtle subversion of the straight code that everyone connects to. It breaks through the mindless routine of social behaviors, and speaks to individuality. I think everyone, no matter how straight, feels oppressed by the limits straight identity. People aren't queer or straight first, we're ourselves first. So that's why I think a touch of queer aesthetic often speaks to straight people. It affords breathing room, where "straight" aesthetic tends to feel suffocating.