1.The labrys, a double-edged hatchet or axe, is a symbol of strength and unity for the lesbian community. Demeter, the Goddess of Earth, is said to have used a labrys as her scepter, especially in religious ceremonies.
2. In 1987, Delta Airlines apologized for arguing in plane crash litigation that it should pay less in compensation for the life of a gay passenger than for a heterosexual one because he may have had AIDS.
3. Gay people tend to be left-handed much more often than heterosexuals.
4. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages in 2001.
5. In Egypt, two male royal manicurists named Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were found buried together in a shared tomb similar to the way married couples were often buried. Their epigraph reads: ‘Joined in life and joined in death’. Having lived in 2400 BC, they are believed to be history’s oldest recorded gay couple.
6. In 1952, the Unites States Congress enacted a law banning lesbians and gay foreigners from entering the country. The law was on the books until it was repealed in 1990.
7. There is some evidence that increased levels of steroids in the womb increases the chances that a girl will be a lesbian.
8. Some historical gay and bi figures have turned their lovers into gods. Alexander the Great wanted to make his boyhood lover Hephaestion a god when he died, but was only allowed to declare him a Divine Hero. The Roman Emperor Hadrian, of wall-building fame, was successful in making his lover, Antinous, a god after he drowned in the Nile.
9. The three U.S. cities that have the most gay couples are New York City (47,000), Los Angeles (12,000), and Chicago (10,000). The major metropolitan cities with the highest LGBT concentration are San Francisco 15.4%, Seattle 12.9%, and Atlanta 12.8%.f
10. The Roman Catholic Church sanctified gay marriages in the “so called” Dark Ages. A notable marriage was between Byzantine Emperor Basil 1st, (867-886) and his partner called John.
11. Gilbert Baker, also known as the “Gay Betsy Ross,” designed the rainbow flag, or Pride Flag, in San Francisco in 1978. The flag is the most prominent symbol of lesbian and gay pride. The colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet represent sexuality, life, healing, the Sun, nature, art, harmony, and the spirit, respectively.
12,. Mercury represents male and female principles in harmony. In mythology, Mercury fathered Hermaphroditus, who had both male and female sex organs.
13. The first U.S. lesbian magazine was titled Vice Versa and was written by the pseudonymous Lisa Ben (an anagram for “lesbian”).f
14. In ancient China, homosexuality was referred to as ‘the cut sleeve’ and ‘pleasures of the bitten peach.’’.
15. Until the late 1400s the word ‘girl’ just meant a child of either sex. If you had to differentiate between them, male children were referred to as ‘knave girls’ and females were ‘gay girls‘.
16. We can thank William Shakespeare and his Globe Theatre players for using the word “drag.” It was an acronymn for Dressed Resembling A Girl.”
17. Queen Elizabeth II of England may or may not be aware that in the early 17th century, there was a gay brothel on the site where she lives – Buckingham Palace. (Surely, there is a modern gay or lesbian in the ranks???)
18. As early as 1806, an early explorer, Nicholas Biddle, found that the Minitarees (Native American tribe) allowed for diversity of gender. He wrote, ‘if a boy shows any symptom of effeminacy or girlish inclinations, he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them and sometimes married to men’.
19. The word “gay” used to refer to a woman prostitute – and a gay man, was a man who slept with lots of women.
2o. A novel called “Carmilla” was a story of a lesbian vampire that preyed on young women, was written 25 years before Dracula.
21. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality should no longer be classified as a mental disorder. Also the same year, the American Bar Association passed a resolution recommending the repeal of all state sodomy laws.c
22. There has been a gay U.S.A President. He was James Buchanan and he shacked up for 10 years with a future Vice President, William Rufus King. Later on, President Andrew Jackson named Buchanan as “Miss Nancy” and King as “Aunt Fancy.”
23. A monocle is a one-piece-eye- glass, now not in use. Lesbians particularly in France and Germany used a monocle as a means of identification.
24. The oldest surviving LGBT organization in the world is Netherlands’ Centre for Culture and Leisure (COC) which was founded in 1946. It used this as a cover name to mask its real purpose.
25. Gay male victims of the Holocaust, who wore the downward-facing pink triangle, were still considered to be criminals when they were freed from concentration camps. They were often sent back to prison to serve out their terms.
From Various Sources
Paula, 2015, stories4hotbloodedlesbians.com
news.lgbti.org 