Which ear is the gay earring? Which ear is the straight ear?
You might recall hearing that if a man wore an earring on the right ear, that meant he was gay. The term “gay ear” was often used. Around the 1960s, people began to catch on that a right-ear earring was effectively a code for being gay. At the same time, the left ear is straight. As time went on, earrings as a whole became more popular, and even some straight men opted to pierce their right ear. It soon became clear that the “gay ear” was no longer a reliable way to tell if a man was gay or not. The “gay earring” fad lasted until the 1990s. But wearing an earring on the right ear is still a popular choice. And as ear piercings on both men and women are becoming more mainstream, more men than ever are opting to get their ears pierced. gay earring A brief history of the gay earring Now you know a little bit about the gay ear. But you might wonder how a right-ear piercing came to be a kind of code. The truth is that gay men weren’t the first men to start wearing earr...