Around the World in 80 Gays : Introduction

Way back in 2012 I mentioned that one of my most favourite television series of all time is James Burke’s “Connections” and all its spin-offs.

I’ve been gathering together many connections between people I’ve written about and have found links with many others. With this in mind I’ve created a huge string of lgbt connections and present it to you in a new series called “Around the World in 80 Gays”. I use the word “gay” in this context to be inclusive of all lgbtq communities, and because it provides an obvious pun on the title of Jules Verne’s famous book “Around the World in 80 Days”.

As the title suggests I’ve gathered the names of 80 people in the lgbt and queer community from all around the world and throughout history to create an unbroken chain on connections.

It would be quite easy to just write about “who knows who” but that would be too simple and too boring. What I’ve looked for are unusual connections which are not obvious or well-known.

The UK’s LGBT History Month in February has no specific theme, as there has been in previous years (i.e. music in 2014, science and technology in 2013, and sport in 2011 and 2012). I’ve used these themes on my blog and covered them throughout those years. With no specific theme for 2015 I’m using “Around the World in 80 Days” as my continuing theme for this year.

There will be several articles each month featuring 2 or 3 lgbt  people who are connected in some way, with one of them leading on to the next article where 2 or 3 more connected people are featured, and so on until we eventually come back to our original person at the end of the year. Each of the “80 Gays” will have a number so that you can keep track of how many I’ve connected along the way.

A few of the people I write about will already have been featured in my blog. Hopefully I can come up with something new to write about them. And I will try to include a many different subjects as I can - art, war, religion, politics, music, literature, science, and anything else that springs forward from the research.

It all sounds a bit complicated but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it as the year progresses.

As we go “Around the World in 80 Gays” this year we’ll encounter The Three Musketeers, the ruins of Pompeii, the Portuguese Inquisition, and a spy called Fagot.