On a recent tour of the Manhattan Gay leather bar scene I was introduced to the Handkerchief Code.   Well I was introduced to a bunch of interesting and thought provoking stuff which will be the subject of later posts, but the Hanky Code is what I am going to discuss here.  The Hanky Code, also known as the Bandana Code and Flagging, was introduced in the 1970’s, possibly spurned on by an off hand remark made by a Village Voice reporter, and was an offshoot of the old male gay code of wearing one’s keys sticking out of one’s jeans back pocket as a signal of their amorous desires and intentions.   Keys out on the left a “Bottom”, keys out on right a “Top”.  This became far far more elaborate with the introduction of handkerchiefs color coordinated to indicate various sexual offshoots.  It started with the male gay scene, quickly spread into the Leather and BDSM scenes but variations of it were picked up by most of the sexual underworld.