🕊️ Is 'light blue' the gayest colour in the world? 🕊️

QUEER WORD
Голубо́й (GOLUBOY)

What It Means:

The Russian word for ‘light blue’.

But more interestingly, it’s also a slang term for a gay man. And, just like many queer-coded terms, it can carry different shades of meaning depending on context: cheeky, neutral, affectionate, or derogatory.

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

The goluboy, dressed in blue, was feeling blue about not being allowed into the blues show.

A Little Bit of History

Do you remember the schoolyard taunts thrown at any boy who dared to wear even a hint of pink?

As if the mere suggestion of that colour on his body was hard evidence that he was — gasp — a total flamer?

This ‘pink-equals-gay’ logic was so deeply ingrained that it might surprise you to learn that pink isn’t the universally accepted colour of male homosexuality
(Shocking, isn’t it? It’s almost as though gender and colour associations are a completely made-up social construct!).

In Russia the colour that’s a total no-go for any vehemently strapping heterosexual man is blue. But, not just any shade of blue - specifically light blue

(Fun fact: The Russian language actually treats light blue (голубо́й) and regular blue (си́ний) as entirely separate colours, kind of like how English distinguishes between red and pink).

So, how the heck did light blue come to mean ‘gay’ in Russia?

Well, first, my usual disclaimer. I know that I sound like a broken record at this stage, but because queer history has only started being properly recorded and preserved in recent decades, there’s no single, verified origin story.

But, in this instance, I almost don’t mind the uncertainty, because the competing theories are fascinating. Each one gives us a little window into how homosexuality has been perceived in Russian culture over the years.

Let’s take a closer look, starting with the most straightforward.

Theory 1: Double Blue

If blue is the colour traditionally associated with men, then two men together equals double blue.

A bit like double denim. But instead of being a fashion crime, it’s just really gay.

Theory 2: It’s Not Blue, It’s a Dove

This one suggests the term has nothing to do with colour goluboy, and actually derives from golubok, the word for ‘pigeon’ or ‘little dove’. The word was used affectionately between lovers or close friends (think ‘petal, or ‘darling’ or ‘dear’), and eventually became the go-to term of endearment in gay circles.

There's also a related theory from the 1960s involving Sverdlov Square, a well-known cruising spot in Moscow that happened to be... well... absolutely crawling with pigeons. So, any gay man who went cruising there was dubbed a pigeon.

Theory 3: The Aristocratic Stereotype

‘Blue blood’ (golubaya krov) is a term for aristocracy — and in Russia, there's a persistent stereotype that links poshness with non-heterosexuality. Basically, rich people were thought to have too much time on their hands, which is an obvious (?) pathway to same-sex experimentation. Hence, the blue from blue blood came to be associated with gayness.

Theory 4: The Religious Sect

The Khlysts were a mystical religious sect rumoured to practise ecstatic rituals that occasionally included group sex, which were not always but sometimes homosexual. It's said that goluboy was one of their self-descriptors.

Theory 5: Prison Slang

There’s documentation from the 1940s capturing Soviet prison slang, and in it the term golubaya lenta (blue ribbon) is used to describe the passive partner in penetrative sex. I’m not exactly sure where the ribbon part came from, but the theory goes that, somewhere along the way, it got dropped.

Theory 6: The Beloved Children’s Book Character

In the Soviet children’s story ‘The Golden Key’ by Alexei Tolstoy, there’s a character named Malvina who has bright blue hair. For reasons both patently obvious and confoundingly mysterious, Malvina became a bit of a queer icon. Her name is still used affectionately in gay slang, and some people think her hair colour may have helped cement goluboy’s queer associations.

Theory 7: A Warning Sign

Back to the dove theory again.

In the 1951 Soviet peace-promoting film ‘We Are For Peace’, there’s a song called ‘Fly, Doves, Fly (Letite, golubi, letite)’. Gay men allegedly began using that phrase as a coded warning that a police or KGB raid was coming, encouraging others to scatter as quickly as possible.

My Pick (Plus a bit of Over-sharing)

For no reason other than it’s my favourite, I’m going to go with Theory 4. It’s just ridiculous enough to be believable, and I love the idea of throwing a spiritual orgy in order to get closer to my god (but only for religious reasons, you understand).

Since doing this deep dive, I’ve been thinking a lot about how these silly, arbitrary rules about colour stick with us throughout our lives, worming their way into our wardrobes and staying there long after the schoolyard teasing and ostracisation ends.

To this day I still avoid pinks, oranges, and reds. Sure, I like to tell myself it’s because these colours clash with my pale Scottish skin, but if I’m honest it probably has more to do with a lingering fear of standing out.

But what about you? Do meaningless colour associations still guide your wardrobe choices?