The color of the handkerchief identifies a particular activity, and the pocket it is worn in left or right identifies the wearer's preferred role in that activity. For example, a dark blue handkerchief indicates an interest in anal sex , and wearing it in the left pocket indicates a preference for being the penetrating partner. Over time the colors and types of apparel in use have greatly proliferated.
The wearing of colored bandanas around the neck as a practical accessory 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.
In the s, the modern hanky code developed as a semiotic system of sexual advertising popular among the gay leather community of the United States [ 3 ] and cruising scene more broadly. Businesses across the country used the hanky code in advertisements to gay clientele. The origin of the modern hanky code is disputed. The modern hanky code is often reported to have started in New York City around , when a journalist for the Village Voice jested that instead of simply wearing a set of keys on one side or the other then a common code 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 handkerchiefs.
S Leather in San Francisco, claimed that he created the first hanky code with his business partners at Leather 'n' Things in , when their bandana supplier inadvertently doubled their order and the expanded code would help them sell the extra colors they had received. Around , Bob Damron's Address Book published a yearly chart for the meaning of each colored handkerchief. There is no single authoritative standard for the code, but there is broad agreement on the definition of certain colors.
This table is drawn from Larry Townsend 's The Leatherman's Handbook II the second edition; the first edition did not include this list and is generally considered authoritative. Townsend noted that discussion with a prospective partner is still important because people may wear a given color "only because the idea of the hankie turns them on" or "may not even know what it means". Longer, more elaborate lists may be found online, but many of the color variations in them are less often used in practice.
