Do We Need Queer Flagging?


First of all, what is queer flagging? What is its productive usefulness in society?

Queer flagging, or as it's known to those who get it, "flagging," is a symbolic means of signaling to other queer people that you are also, in fact, queer. At its base, it is a way to let other queers know that you're in the know, with signs and symbolism that isn't immediately apparent to anyone outside of the community. That being said, it's very cultural; as in, different queer communities have different "flags," signs, symbols or behaviours.

For example, one the most prominent (read: the most well-studied and least erased) means of flagging in 1970s North America was hanky code. Hanky code is under the umbrella of a wider Leatherman's Protocol as illustrated by the likes of Larry Townsend, John Weal, leather daddies and butches, and other queers who started the leather/kink/BDSM communities in Chicago and San Francisco. Hanky code as a "gay semiotic" (the study of signs and sign-using behaviour), as well as other codes are the most studied, but there are yet others.

Physical and/or drawn symbols were also prominent, pre-1970s. The lambda symbol, violets, lavender, pink and black triangles, nautical stars, labrys, etc. all meant something to queers before being queer was decriminalized. And that's the thing, isn't it: it was once a crime of indecent exposure to be queer in North America and the United Kingdom; and in other places around the world, it still is. Flagging was a means to be "out," but "stealth."

Over the course of fifty years, in North America at least, I do not think it's a stretch to say that flagging has been watered down. Hear me out. As public opinion of the queer community shifted, especially from the 1990s to the 2010s, there wasn't as much of a need to "flag" to other queers that you were in the "in" crowd. Symbols, specifically those related to sapphics/lesbians, were watered down and appropriated by non-queer women as fashion statements. Hanky code has largely fallen out of use. There are safe places to meet other people who are into kink and BDSM. Online dating exists now, and flagging can be done by means of setting visibility preferences and naming your identity on your profile. Again, this is extremely biased to the West and North America, to a certain extent.

Well. That is, pretty much until 2016. That was until there were anti-transgender bills being tabled in the United States congress and in the Canadian House of Commons. The bubble of perceived safety has all but popped. Though, in the same breath, healthy criticism would dictate that the bubble of safety has, in fact, never been extended to certain groups of people. I would definitely agree with that statement, since all of the evidence is there: BIPOC and non-Black, non-Indigenous people of colour alike are still subjugated by the intersection of queerness and racialization. Transgender people of colour still walk on a precarious line of subjugation on the intersection of racialization and gender. Disabled people still do not have full marriage equality. So yes, for the majority of the "minority," the bubble of safety was never open.

And yes, even way back in the 1970s, the two well-studied spheres of queer semiotics didn't necessarily apply to women, queers of colour, transgender people, or intersex people. The question remains: what is the "queer semiotic" for the rest of us?

Think back to now: how do you, if it's safe for you to do so, "flag" to other queers that you are queer? What is your "queer semiotic," and do you find that you have a need for it in this day and age? Think about how privilege enters into the equation. Is it safe for you to be out? Are you in the closet? Are you stealth? Are you only out to people online? Are you disabled and/or chronically ill? Are you racialized and/or diasporic?

In this way, and in consideration of the state of the world, a new type of flagging could be emerging. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly six years ago, for example, there is a certain subset of queer people who continue to practice covid-competence, as I imagine there was a certain subset of people mid- and post-AIDS crisis who practiced safe sex and regular STI testing. Some others have abandoned that mindset to go to brunch, to say the absolute least. Masking and regular testing could be one example of a queer semiotic.

Of course, there are people who study queer semiotics for a living, as well as queer geographies, so I believe it's time for me, an amateur, to wrap up here, and give you all a "further reading" section. It's a long one.

Further Reading: