The Queer Code: Secret Languages of LGBTQ+ Art

Explore the visual symbols and language used by LGBTQ+ artists and communities to suggest hidden identities. Oscar Wilde and his circle famously wore a green carnation as a signifier of their identities. These flowers are just one example of the many visual symbols throughout history, which hinted at secret sexualities and identities that had been hidden. So what other coded symbols can we find in the history of queer art? How did today's artist reference and re-use them? And how have hidden symbols transitioned to a wider and more expressive queer visual language?

In this new series of three films, Not Seeing Straight: Celebrating Queer Art and Lives, we LGBTQ+ explore artists and their artworks. Since legal changes have in recent decades made the lives of queer people more open and free, so too has the art produced by LGBTQ plus artists. The world of queer arts opened up, becoming bolder, louder and more mainstream.


Narrated by Afton Moran
Produced by National Galleries of Scotland and HeeHaw

Special thanks to:
Glasgow Women's Library
Equality Network
Ru Jazzle

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