If a guy (mid-20s to mid-30s) wears pierced earrings in both ears, does this mean he is gay???

I have no idea...but it would be GREAT to hear that the answer is "Yes." ;)

Otherwise, I need to do some very polite backing away from a near neighbor (who is actually a nice and sincerely friendly guy...but also: someone I would never be interested in even if he were straight).

I don't know if the earrings are a "I am gay and proud" statement, or a statement of Millennial straight positivity towards gender neutrality.

It can only be assumed that he likes earrings, really. Like I'm a straight guy who wears my hair longer than most women.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2015 05:27PM by rationalist01.

Just don't go around wearing a red handkerchief in your right rear pocket. Few will understand this reference, and I can only attribute my knowledge of it to my habit of remembering trivia and obscurities that have no relation to me. Really. No relation.

My fiance wears earrings in both ears. He just likes the look of them. He thinks only one earring looks unbalanced.

I don't think you can judge someone as gay by what they wear...

No, I have more straight friends with earrings than gay ones.

Not a hard and fast rule of course--I have a single earring and I'm gay, but I'm also 50.

Yes! There is a meaning.

Lots of straight guys wear a pair.

Some guys wear only one. On the left, on the right - has zero meaning. It just means that that is what they like.

I am gay. I wear a pair.

I have a straight, trim chasing co-worker. Knee deep in strange. He also wears a pair.

Here is the meaning: it just means he is wearing earrings.

I was led to believe a single piercing on the right ear signifys they are gay.

I've had piercings myself, and known guys who had piercings on both ears, that in itself doesn't insinuate being gay. It would be incidental. I think homosexuality was pretty far away in my mind when I got them done.

You were lead to believe an ignorant idea.

Most men I know have both ears pierced and they range from straight to gay to bisexual. It's largely a fashion choice now, not an indication of orientation.

On that note, who remembers the hoopla surrounding Earring Magic Ken? He even wore a cock ring on a chain around his neck.

I am a 43 years old man, I am married (to a woman),
with four kids, and I am not in the slightest
gay. Nothing at all wrong with being gay, I
just am not. At all. I've always liked girls
since I was little and never had the slightest
interest in men.

I have both ears pierced and I routinely wear
various manly looking "guy" earrings, lots of
stainless steel, some small hoops, etc. My
wife thinks they make me look like a badass.
Or so she says. :-)

Anyway I like how my earrings look. And since
I live in Utah County, I like not having people
assume I am Mormon.

Thank you everyone...I wish it were the simpler answer, but I guess it isn't.

Your input is extremely muchly valued and appreciated.

:)

The answer "No, it does not mean they are gay" isn't simple enough for you?

I'm 51 gay and have studied a lot about gay history, culture (Stonewall, literature [Jack Kerouac, Catcher in the Rye], famous (Sal Mineo, Paul Lynde, Rip Taylor, etc...)...

In the 70's one earing was indeed a "gay" thing. This was started in San Francisco because of the Merchant Marines and sailors. Sailors would pierce their ear once they crossed the equator. The gays in the area adopted it, in fact they had the code, Left ear you were top, right ear bottom, both??? drag queen??? Freddie Mercury adopted the one earring and so did Elton John.

Then in the 80's with punk, New Wave, New Romantics music and art coming into vogue--It was just a way to shock parents and older society. So it became cool for everyone to wear earrings.

Then it became a RAP hip-hop thing in the 90's; so Country-Western people would never wear an earring (cuz then you'd either be gay or a rapper) Then suddenly Willie Nelson started wearing earrings and it was cool again.

So now??? A man with earrings doesn't mean a thing except a fashion statement or a little bling. Athletes, Rock Stars, etc... now do it; a lot of men have rejected it, because it has become so "accepted" that you can't show your rebellion and individuality when everyone else is doing it.

Yeah, and everyone that had a red hankie in their pocket meant that they were into fisting.

I can tell you that just because they had an earring in their right ear did not mean they were gay. I know lots of straight men that had earrings in their right ear in the 70's

I heard the myth about the earring and found out very fast that it was not at all true. How did I find out? By relying on the myth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2015 06:47PM by MJ.

Is this really serious?

Guys wearing earrings has nothing to do with their sexual preference, no matter what ear it is, both, or none.

nonsequiter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is this really serious?

Yes...of course it is a serious question. I do not say "serious" unless I MEAN "serious."



> Guys wearing earrings has nothing to do with their
> sexual preference, no matter what ear it is, both,
> or none.

Maybe not NOW, but this was the subtext of my question. I assure you that during my childhood, my adolescence, my young adulthood, and throughout a fair chunk of my adulthood a guy wearing one or more earrings had EVERYTHING to do with sexual preference (in a film set in contemporary times, a male actor with an earring or two was visual shorthand for "gay")...and there was a "left/right" code to it also (just like the handkerchief code regarding the back pocket of men's pants).

I was asking: NOW, "today," in 2015, if a guy is wearing one or more earrings, is this a STILL (!!!) a signal of sexual orientation...because if it is, this would help me very much right now in dealing with a practical situation regarding a guy (chronological age: mid-20s to mid-30s) who lives a VERY short distance away from where I live.

If he is gay, it is an easier problem to deal with because I am a female, and it would just mean that--in a friendly, interested, trying-to-be-engaging way--he was unconsciously doing the EXACT same things that a straight guy who is coming on to a female does.

Now that I know that the "earring code" no longer applies in 2015, I have to deal with the situation differently.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2015 06:58PM by tevai.

Well now you know that it is a very absurd thing to assume. Hence why I can reasonably question whether or not you are even serious.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2015 06:57PM by nonsequiter.

nonsequiter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well now you know that it is a very absurd thing
> to assume. Hence why I can reasonably question
> whether or not you are even serious.

?????????

I did NOT know before I asked the question...which is why I DID ask the question.

Something I learned as a child and have lived by ever since:

The ONLY "dumb" question is the one you do NOT ask.

What i said is NOW YOU KNOW. Now you know.

And it would not be great if the answer was yes.

Exactly... it would be another one of those stupid things of

"Oh he likes musicals? He must be gay!"

No, he just likes musicals.

nonsequiter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Exactly... it would be another one of those stupid
> things of
>
> "Oh he likes musicals? He must be gay!"
>
> No, he just likes musicals.

I am in (and grew up in, since I was three years old) the industry and this is not AT ALL the same thing.

Earrings worn by men (who were not at that moment acting in pirate or other kinds of swashbuckler films) WAS (for a very large part of my life) a signal that a man was [openly] gay.

This is history.

This is a FACT.

I was asking if it was STILL a fact.

No, it is NOT a fact (anymore). and it is ridiculous, things have CHANGED.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2015 06:59PM by nonsequiter.

In my experience, it never was a "fact".

My experience is the same as yours MJ. Only when I was 14 surrounded by other idiot 14 year olds did anyone ever talk about the "gay ear" but I am younger than most here. Other than that no one ever thought twice about a guy with earrings and I dont really encounter many who do.

I know because when I tried to reply on such a "fact", I found it not to be true.

It was just another ignorant stereotype that idiots, even myself bought into. I bought into it until I tried relying on it to identify someone I might flirt with, then finding out they were straight.

MJ Wrote:
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> And it would not be great if the answer was yes.

I don't understand what you've said here, MJ. I am a female and if he was gay, I wouldn't have to deal with a situation stickier than it already is.

For ME, him being gay would be GREAT!!!

It would not be "great" because there are already so many inane things tied with being gay. It makes being gay very annoying in certain settings. And it stops a lot of people from being able to express themselves accurately for fear of being labelled and targeted.

Maybe great for you in this very specific circumstance but on a larger picture, no, not "great" at all.

For the most part, his being gay is none of your businesses and he is under no obligation to flag himself as gay for your convenience.

MJ Wrote:
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> For the most part, his being gay is none of your
> businesses and he is under no obligation to flag
> himself as gay for your convenience.

If he is coming on to me, and I have to engage with him (he is a VERY near neighbor--and he is continually coming over to chat, volunteer to do MY work on MY residence, give me gifts of various kinds, etc.), then whether he is gay or not IS my business--because IF he is gay, then he's just a super-friendly kind of guy, and IF he is straight, then he is coming on to me and this a situation I do NOT wish to be a part of.

And although I agree that he is under no "obligation" to flag himself as gay for my convenience, the fact that he (possibly) chose to flag HIMSELF as gay is--under the circumstances--MY business.

Im sorry that his sexual preference is so inconvenient of a thing for you to deal with in your personal life... Were we could just wish other peoples sexual preferences to be changed, life would just be "great" wouldnt it?

How about you just point blank tell him you arent interested romantically?

nonsequiter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Im sorry that his sexual preference is so
> inconvenient of a thing for you to deal with in
> your personal life... Were we could just wish
> other peoples sexual preferences to be changed,
> life would just be "great" wouldnt it?
>
> How about you just point blank tell him you arent
> interested romantically?

Because to this point, he has just been super, over-the-top, friendly, conversational, "helpful," engaging, and desirous of giving me gifts (which I have always politely refused).

This guy is a NEIGHBOR, and if he was gay, everything he has done could come under his own, personal definition of "being neighborly."

Do you live in a small town or something? I am wondering why

you want to know this?

To answer your question the wearing of two earrings in your

ears is not an indication that you are gay. There is no

declarative instruction on apparel for gays or lesbians.

sorry. They don't all look alike or dress alike

or even think alike like MOrmons. You should get out more

see the world and enlarge your mind my friend. Its a wonderful

world.

My mom wears an ankle bracelet on her left ankle. Actually, it's two; two gold chains. She wears an ankle bracelet because her mother always did from way back in the 1930s. Mom's continuing a bit of a tradition.

She and my dad were at this pool party years ago and she was shocked when another woman kinda sorta made a pass at her. Not rude or anything, just expressing interest I guess. Mom said, sorry, she was totally str8. Then the woman asked her if she knew that a bracelet on one's left ankle means they're a lesbian. She replied that she wore it because her mother always wore one, and the woman said, "Oh! Then your mother was gay."

"Nope," said mom, "But maybe she shoulda been. She sure had abysmal luck with men!"

Mom still wears it on her left ankle. People can think whatever the ĦƐ££ they want, she says.