Sailors frequently wore earrings, believing they would serve as protection against drowning at sea. The truth is that gay men weren’t the first men to start wearing earrings.

But you might wonder how a right-ear piercing came to be a kind of code. Now you know a little bit about the gay ear. Versace Medusa stud earrings $295, SHOP NOW. And as ear piercings on both men and women are becoming more mainstream, more men than ever are opting to get their ears pierced. But wearing an earring on the right ear is still a popular choice. The “gay earring” fad lasted until the 1990s. It soon became clear that the “gay ear” was no longer a reliable way to tell if a man was gay or not. At the same time, the left ear is straight.Īs time went on, earrings as a whole became more popular, and even some straight men opted to pierce their right ear. Around the 1960s, people began to catch on that a right-ear earring was effectively a code for being gay.

You might recall hearing that if a man wore an earring on the right ear, that meant he was gay.