The German anthology Me Schwul Auge | My Gay Eye has published works by over 500 ternatnal artists and thors.
Contents:
QUEERG THE EARRG: PIERCGS ARE GAY
Another way that piercgs exist wh queer culture is wh the “Gay Ear. ” Back when was much ls safe to be openly gay, was often seen that people would e s to signal to one another that they were gay. Of urse, that was an herently sexual signalg system, whereas the gay ear existed as a fay iendly versn.
“Born om the s is a phrase few now remember as faiar, ‘Left is right and right is wrong’ (‘wrong’ here meang gay)” (Lohei and Dellaquilla, “Pot 89”). That phrase, a time where the piercg muny was buildg self up greatly and gag populary, led to a large populatn g to an unrstandg that a sgular piercg the right earlobe reflected people’s inty as gay. Though the spread of rmatn was nsistent, and at some pot few uld agree on which ear was the gay ear.
Wh such nflictg yet wispread rmatn, many people wh one ear pierced went and got their other ear pierced so as not to seem spic and end up beg outed as gay to the general public when they are not ready to be, while others were unaaid and donned their sgle lobe piercg wh pri. In his article, Henry Fergon reunts that “Several of the staff had wanted to leave a badly jured patient to die on a trolley the rridor bee they were sure that as he was pierced and a motor cyclist he mt be a gay sadomasochist and therefore likely to have AIDS.