Gay ear ring
Home / gay topics / Gay ear ring
. Studies have not linked earring placement to a person’s identity or feelings. See also, very famous mono-earring wearers, between then and now: Harrison Ford, Michael Jordan, Mr. Clean, etc. A study conducted by the advertising insights agency Bigeye revealed that 51 percent of Gen Z agree that traditional gender roles and binary gender labels are outdated, with 56 percent of millennials believing the same.
Landon Peoples is a POPSUGAR contributor.
Queer Symbols: The Single Earring
why did gay men wear a single earring?
and which ear was the gay ear anyway?
welcome back to yesterqueers
my name is Amanda I'm a public historian of queer history
and for pride
I'm diving into the history of all sorts of queer symbols and slang
the practice of ear piercing is at least 5,000 years old
and it's part of cultural traditions around the world
it actually fell out of favor in the United States in the 1920s
piercing didn't start to regain its popularity until the seventies
due in part to rock stars like Keith Richards
wearing pierced earrings and punks
especially in Europe sporting multiple facial piercings
wearing an earring very quickly
became a way for gay men in the US
to flag their orientation to other people in the know
originally whether a man wore an earring on the right or left
often mirrored
his preference for taking the active or passive role during sex
but eventually the right ear became known as the gay ear
unfortunately it took less than a decade
for that discreet symbol to become widely known
and if you grew up in the 1980s or 90s
I bet you heard the phrase "LEFT is right and right is WRONG"
at some point when boys were discussing getting their ears pierced
we even see Bender putting Claire's earring in his left ear
at the end of The Breakfast Club
as you can imagine
having what was supposed to be a discreet signal turned into a bright
flashing light was not great for queer men
and it became an excuse for targeted harassment
by 1991 piercing had become so popular
that the New York Times actually wrote about it
and noted in their article
that the trend was making it nearly impossible
for gay men to use earrings to identify each other
that's it for today as always
more information including sources and further reading
is available in the usual place
It can be a bold statementor a simple look. Salem now boasts five ear piercings in total.
So, what is to be made - in 2025 - of being told what to wear where? Your choice should express who you truly are. Despite trends becoming more fluid - the gap between gender-neutral styles in fashion and beauty narrowing - Salem knows the journey endures.
"I find it hilarious when people say, 'Why can't people just dress like their own gender and stop pushing their agenda on everyone?' Because I can only say the same to so many other people for trying to tell me how to dress my entire life," he says.
This shows that fashionis about personal choice, not rules.
People use earrings to express who they are. Nor was it about a limp wrist or gaydar. (China has since banned men's earrings outright.)
Casting director and industry stalwart James Scully remembers his first encounter with the phenomenon, in the late '70s.
People wear earrings on either ear or both, just as they wish.
Piercingis a way to share who you are. They often showed status, wealth, or beliefs. . Maybe you’ve heard hints or jokes about a “gay ear” and felt curious or confused.
You’re not alone. His most recent acquisition, a vintage Céline door knocker, could be seen from down the block.
Some believed that wearing an earring on the right ear meant a man was gay. Some people, however, continue to rewrite the rules, using style as a way to reclaim lost time when flamboyance and exuberance were frowned upon and conformity (or passing) was the only way to get by.
"I wear [an earring] specifically on my right ear because I'm a proud queer person and I want the history of what it means to have your right ear pierced to be a symbol of power, not weirdness or mystery."
Phillip Salem, a real estate agent and longtime New Yorker, has lived in a bubble for 15 years.
However, earrings have also sparked debates over sexual identity, such as the concept of which ear is the gay ear, leading to stigmas over the left and right piercing.
And in the "Café Disco" episode of "The Office," Kelly can be seen piercing Andy in a cutaway as he asks: "Are you sure that's not the gay ear?"
But in the book "Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia," editors Edmond J. Coleman and Theo Sandfort discuss the fact that straight Russian men would often mark their first sexual act with women by piercing their right ear as a way to ward off unwanted advances from gay men.