This article examines in depth the theoretical positions of the Tuntenstreit – a major theoretical dispute within the radical West German gay liberation movement in the 1970s. By working through archival material as well as the dispute's fundamental texts, it renders visible its often-neglected underlying theoretical motifs and, consequently, its idiosyncratic contribution to a ‘gay theory’. Subsequently, it shows how questions of publicity and appearance – exemplified in the figure of the Tunte – were integrated into the revolutionary politics of the movement. This critical examination seeks to inform understandings and genealogies of West German gay liberation and its theory production.