50 Interesting Facts About . . .Lesbian, Gay,   Bisexual, and Transgender)

1. The planet Mercury is a symbol used by the transgendered community. The sign for Mercury is a crescent shape and a cross, which represents the male and female principles in harmony in an individual. Additionally, the god Mercury fathered Hermaphroditus, who had both male and female sex organs.^f
2. 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.^f
3. 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.^f
4. Records of same-sex relationships have been found in nearly every culture throughout history with varying degrees of acceptance.
5. The number of gays and lesbians in the U.S. is estimated to be more than 8.8 million.
Nearly 9 million people in the U.S are gay or lesbian
6. No research has conclusively proven what causes homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.
7. Scientists estimate that more than 25% of the total human population worldwide has a homosexual orientation.
8. More than 1 million children in the U.S. are being raised by same-sex couples.
9. An estimated 1 million lesbians and gays are military veterans.
10. An estimated 1% of the population in America is confirmed as transsexuals.           
11. Approximately one in three gay men prefer to not engage in anal sex.
12. In some American Indian cultures, having a same-sex attraction was called being Two-Spirited. The tribe honored such people as having special gifts and being especially blessed.
13. Gay teen suicides are more common in politically conservative regions.
14. Gay people tend to be left-handed much more often than heterosexuals.
15. Gay or lesbian teens are 50% more likely to use alcohol and three times more likely to use marijuana than heterosexual teens. They are also more likely to be homeless.
16. There is some evidence that increased levels of steroids in the womb increases the chances that a girl will be a lesbian.
17. Some researchers have asked, if the main motivation of all species is to pass genes on to future generations, and gay men produce 80% fewer offspring than straight men, why would a gay gene not have been wiped out? Explanations include that homosexuality is caused by a virus or that female relatives of gay men are more fertile to compensate.
18. Homosexuality has been recorded in China since ancient times and has often been referred to as “the cut sleeve” and “pleasures of the bitten peach.
19. Scholars speculate that the growing acceptance of homosexuality in China is due to China’s “one-child” policy. Additionally, unlike the United States and Europe, which are predominantly Christian, and Southeast Asia, which is predominately Muslim, China has no dominant religion to fuel debates against homosexuality. Furthermore, researchers believe that homophobia in China is simply a European import
Finger length may indicate sexual orientation
20. Researchers have found that the length of a lesbian’s index finger in relation to the ring finger is closer to the male ratio than straight females. Men tend to have shorter index fingers in relation to their ring fingers; in women, the lengths are about the same.
21. Studies have shown that gay men have more feminized patterns for certain cognitive tasks, such as spatial perception and remembering where objects are placed. Studies have also shown masculinized results for lesbians in inner-ear functions and eye-blinking reactions to loud noises.
Genetics and environment both play a role in determining homosexuality
22. If one identical twin is gay, the other has about a 20-50% chance of being gay. Because it is not 100%, scientists speculate that homosexuality is a result of the interplay of environmental factors (e.g., surge of hormones in the womb, a virus, etc.) and genetics.
23. As of 2010, gay marriage is legal in New York, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. California, New Jersey, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., offer same-sex partners benefits similar to those offered to married couples.
24. Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, US and Argentina. In Mexico, same-sex marriage is legal but performed only in Mexico City.
25. The first published piece about homosexuality by an African American writer is the short story “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” by Bruce Nugent.
26. The Drag, written and produced by Mae West, is the first play with gay male content to be produced in the United States.
27. The first U.S. lesbian magazine was titled Vice Versa and was written by the pseudonymous Lisa Ben (an anagram for “lesbian”).
From 1952 to 1990, homosexual foreigners were banned from entering the U.S.
28. 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.
29. The first lesbian organization in the United States was formed in 1955. Called the Daughters of Bilitis, it was founded in San Francisco by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon.
30. In 1961, Illinois became the first state to abolish its laws against consensual homosexual sex.
31. The Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop was founded in 1967 in New York City and was the first gay bookstore in the world.
32. In 1968, Dr. John Money performed the first complete male-to-female sex-change operation in the United States at Johns Hopkins University.
33. The 1969, Time magazine’s “The Homosexual in America” was the first cover story on gay rights in a national magazine.
34. The first lesbian/feminist bookstore in the U.S. was the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative (now known as True Colors Bookstore), which opened in Minneapolis in 1970.
35. A lavender rhinoceros has been often used to signify the lesbian community. A rhinoceros was chosen because it is generally docile, but when it is provoked, it can become ferocious. Lavender is often used to represent the GLBT community, because it is a mixture of red and blue, which represents the female and male principles, respectively.
36. In 1984, Berkeley, California, became the first city in the United States to extend domestic partnership benefits to lesbian and gay city employees.
37. In 1995, British actor Nigel Hawthorne, star of the film The Madness of King George, became the first openly gay Best Actor nominee in the history of the Academy Awards.
38. In the 1960s, the term “AC/DC” referred to a person who had sex with either men or women. The term came from the abbreviations for two types of electrical currents, an alternating current and a direct current.
39. A “beard” is someone of the opposite sex who knowingly dates a closeted lesbian or gay man to provide that person with a heterosexual “disguise,” usually for family or career purposes.
40. The term “closet” refers to the confining state of being secretive about one’s homosexuality. The word cannot be found in lesbian and gay literature before the 1960s and was probably not used before then.
41. The term “sodomy” refers to various sexual acts that some states have declared illegal. Sodomy is not necessarily synonymous with homosexuality or sex between gay men, and the legal definition differs from state to state. However, in June 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that state sodomy laws that target adult, consensual same-sex practices violate the U.S. Constitution’s due process clause.
42. More than 70% of the thousands of calls to the 24/7 Trevor Lifeline (a national organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to the LGBTQ community) come from the southern and central regions of the United States.
A gene mutation causes homosexuality in male fruit flies
43. The ancient Greeks did not have terms that indicated a dichotomy between “heterosexual” and “homosexual.” Instead, the distinction in ancient Greek sexual relations was who would take a passive or active role. The most common form of same-sex love was between an older male, the erastes, who acted as a mentor, lover, and model for a younger boy, the eromenos. It was believed that sperm was the source of knowledge and that its issue would pass wisdom from the erastes to the eromenos.
44. In June 2011, California became the first state to pass a bill requiring public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians.
Homosexual behavior has been observed in over 1,500 animal species
45. The entire species of the dwarf chimpanzee is bisexual. Lions have also exhibited homosexual behavior. Homosexual behavior has been observed in 1,500 animal species and is most widespread among animals with a complex herd life.
46. The word “lesbian” is derived from the Greek island Lesbos, home of Greek poetess Sappho. Her poetry proclaimed her love for girls and praised the beauty of women
47. Pejorative terms for members of the LGBT community include poof, homo, faggot, queer, and fairy. However, the LGBT community is reclaiming some previously pejorative terms as positive words.^f
48. Same-sex intercourse is generally believed to be against Islamic law; however, there are differing methods of punishment. For example, in some fundamentalist Muslim regions, such as in Nigeria and Iran, homosexual behavior is still punishable by death.
The term "lesbian" was used in academic books as early as 1880
49. While lesbian refers only to female homosexuality, the term “gay” can refer to all members of the LGBTQ community. Some argue that the term “homosexual” should be avoided because the word refers only to sexual behavior rather than complex human romantic feelings.
50. Hitler first curtailed, then prevented, and finally destroyed all German sex research and a flourishing sex reform movement. This was the first step in the systematic persecution of German homosexuals between 1933 and 1945.

2011

References
^a Boswell, John. 1994. Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
^b Duberman, Martin Bauml, Martha Vicinus, & George Chauncey Jr., Eds. 1989. Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past. New York, NY: NAL Books.
^c Emman Bernay, Ed. 2008. Homosexuality. New York, NY: Greenhaven Press.
^d Endersbe, Julie K. 2000. Homosexuality: What Does It Mean? Mankato, MN: Capstone Press.
^e Crompton, Louis. 2003. Homosexuality & Civilization. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
^f The Gay Almanac. 1996. The National Museum & Archive of Lesbian and Gay History. New York, NY: Berkeley Books.