This project is printed lovingly in Baltimore, MD by a bunch of queers. The Hanky Code originated in the 1960s in a series of gay leather bars around Los Angles, California. The hankies functioned as a color coded system for communicating illegal or stigmatized sexual desires within the construct of top/dominate and bottom/submissive. While the hankies lubricated one’s navigation through sexual re
lations, the very existence of such strategically codified garments illuminates the grave reality of extreme sexual oppression and persecution during that time period. The use of the Hanky Code has trickled into the present with slightly less severe undertones, but our intention in illustrating, printing and distributing this new version of the Hanky Code was to remove its historical connotations of shame and fear entirely. The drawings assert sex and body positive visibility not only within queer enclaves but to the masses as well. With such amazing success within our community thus far, we have decided to up production and use Hanky profits to fund the top surgery of one of the artists working on the project. (Top surgery is a surgical procedure that many trans-masculine folks choose to undergo - reconstructing the chest from a female to male contour.) As long as profits keep coming in, we plan to keep supporting the trans folks in their efforts to afford surgery – continuing the amazing cycle of queers supporting queers
