1) The Ancient Greek astrologer Dorotheus of Sidon wrote that boys born when the planet Venus was in a particular alignment with the planet Saturn would grow up to be passive same-sex lovers, and girls born when Venus appeared as the Morning Star would become lesbian.
2) There are asteroids named after Jim Parsons and his “Big Bang Theory” character Sheldon Cooper, and his catchphrase “Bazinga” – yes, there’s an asteroid called Bazinga.
3) During World War II in America the words “gazoon” and “gazook” were slang names for a gay man, probably deriving from the French word “garçon”.
4) Suzy Solidor (1900-1983), a French lesbian cabaret singer, had her portrait painted in her lifetime more times than any other woman in history. There are at least 225 known portraits of her. Below are just a handful.
5) David Gerrold, the gay science-fiction writer and creator of the famous Tribbles in “Star Trek” (the original series), predicted the invention of the smart phone in 1999 before the technology existed to make it possible.
6) The Mattachine Society, a pioneering gay right organisation founded in 1950 in the USA, was named after a group of Medieval masked minstrels.
7) Lesbian novelist Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909, the first woman to do so.
8) The most prolific lgbt serial killer of the 20th century was Luis Alfredo Garavito (b.1957), who raped, tortured and murdered 147 boys in Columbia. He was sentenced to 1,853 years in prison.
9) The Makhlyes were a mythical tribe in North Africa who were female on one side of the body and male on the other. Their gender alternated, though ancient writers usually referred to them as female.
10) “Queen” James I of Great Britain set up a mulberry garden in St. James’s Park in 1609. Less than 50 years later it was the site of a gay brothel.
11) Before becoming Mr. Gay UK 2008, Dino Gamecho (a professional actor now using the stage name Dino Fetscher), appeared in three episodes of “Doctor Who” in 2007 – “The Sontaran Strategum”, “The Poison Sky” (seen below on the left) and “The Doctor’s Daughter”.
12) Only 2 lgbt athletes have competed at both the summer and winter Olympics Games. They are Chris Witty (USA) who competed in cycling and speed skating, and Georgia Simmerling (Canada) who competed in cycling, alpine skiing and freestyle skiing. Georgia is also the first Canadian and the only lgbt athlete to compete in 3 different sports in 3 different Olympic.
13) The first person tried and executed under England’s 1533 Buggery Act was Sir Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury (executed 1540).
14) In the walled city of the Siwa Oasis in a remote part of Egypt it was common for men to marry men. When they did so they could only have one spouse at a time, whereas in heterosexual marriages men could have several wives. The practice was stamped out by the Egyptian authorities when modern transport networks made the Siwa Oasis more accessible.
15) Ignoring all Mr. Gay or Miss Gay contests, Spain is the only country to have had an openly lesbian Miss Spain (2013), openly transgender Miss Spain (2018), and openly gay Mr. Spain (2016). Spain is the first and only country to have any openly lgbt winners in a non-lgbt national beauty pageant.
16) An African-American lesbian gospel singer called Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973) is generally credited with inventing Rock’n’Roll.
17) Tom Daley’s (below left) great-great-great-grandfather Alfred Foot (1872-1952) (below centre) was the uncle of Michael Foot (1913-2010) (below right), the former Labour Party leader and Leader of the Opposition to Mrs. Thatcher’s Prime Minister.
18) Seventh-Day Adventist Dr. John Kellogg believed that rich, fancy food led to sexual depravity, including masturbation and homosexuality. To prevent this happening he invented corn flakes. Another Seventh-Day Adventist invented Weetabix for the same reason.
19) Korophilia and parthenophilia are the female equivalents of paedophilia. Both terms are used to describe the sexual attraction of women to young girls.
20) Sarah Outen (b.1985) was (and still is) the youngest person to row solo across the Indian Ocean (1 April to 23 August 2009). On the Indian Ocean at the same time (28 April to 25 June 2009) Angela Madsen (b.1960) was (and still is) being the oldest woman to row any ocean. Sarah was the first woman and first lgbt person to set off on a successful ocean row, and Angela was the first lgbt person and the joint-first woman (with another woman on her crew) to finish a successful ocean row.
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