25 for '25

Here are 25 facts, figures and trivia about lgbt people and places to celebrate LGBT History Month UK 2025.

1) It is traditional in the West, when heterosexual couples marry, for the wife to adopt the husband’s surname. Same-sex couples can choose to adopt either or both family names. Footballers Tanya Kalivas and Martha West took a unique approach. They organised a football match between members of their families. Whichever family won the match would be the family name the couple adopted. The match ended in a 1-1 draw! Tanya and Martha have kept their own surname names, though they plan to have another football match should they have children to decide their children’s family name.

2) Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, built by the gay King Ludwig II, is one of the most recognised castles in the world due to its appearance in “Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang”. It has also been painted and photographed many times. In 2015 a watercolour painting of the castle was sold for £71,000. It was painted by Adolf Hitler.

3) Dr. Tina Smilkstein, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Cal Poly State University, USA (silver medallist in table tennis at the 1994 Gay Games) was a world record holder at the age of 13. On 2nd June 1974 she broke the world record for the most consecutive jumps on a pogo stick without falling off. She jumped 36,218 times in 5 hours and 15 minutes. The record was beaten 4 months later.

4) Shudō was a form of homosexual relationship common in Japanese samurai society up to the 19th century. It was similar to the practice in ancient Greek in which male athletes and soldiers chose a younger male partner for regular sex. In shudō the elder partner was called a nenja (not to be confused with ninja), and the younger partner was called a wakashū.

5) Jacc Batch (b.1985) of Kettering, England, held the world record for the most items of Silvanian Families memorabilia. In 2018 he had over 5,000 items. Sadly, he sold the entire collection in 2023.

6) Same-sex marriages have taken place on all 7 continents. The last was Antarctica, when the first same-sex wedding on that continent took place on 22nd April 2022 between Eric Bourne and Stephen Carpenter.

7) Following on from that, the first female same-sex wedding on Antarctica took place on 14th February 2023 between Sarah and Jane Snyder-Kamen.

8) Sodomite is a well-known word used in the past as a derogatory term for a gay man. It derives from the Biblical story of the two cities Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a less well-known derogatory word for a gay man which derives from Gomorrah – gomorrhean. It appears in “Glossographia Anglicana Nove: Or a Dictionary”, published in 1719.

9) A sequel to Fact 2 on the “24 for ‘24” list about the entrance gate to Freddie Mercury’s home Garden Lodge being sold, the entire property (which has its own Wikipedia page) went up for sale in February 2024. The auctioneers accepted no offers lower than £30 million ($38 million). As of January 2025 it had not been sold.

10) Figures published by the UK Government in February 2024 showed that there were 268 inmates who identifes as transgender in UK prisons. That’s 71 more than the previous figure published in 2021. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s the same 268 inmates – some will have been released and others imprisoned since 2021.

11) Anthony Morley (b.1972) was voted the very first Mr. Gay UK in 1993. In 2008 he was convicted of murdering and partially eating his boyfriend and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

12) Charles Hawtrey (1914-1988) was the first gay actor to play a parody of James Bond 007 in “Carry On Spying” (1963). His character was originally going to be called James Bind, but the Bond film producers thought this was too close to 007’s name and threatened legal action. The character was renamed Charles Bind.

13) The distinctive national flag and coat of arms of Trinidad and Tobago were both designed by gay artist Carlisle Chang (1921-2001) when the country became independent.

14) Lgbt+ descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims who “landed on Plymouth Rock” (to quote the song by gay songwriter Cole Porter) include 9/11 hero Mark Bingham; politician Peter Buttigeig, actors Jodie Foster, Vincent Price and Matt Bomer; Olympic figure skater Toller Cranston; and alleged murderer Lizzie Borden.

15) “Caper in the Castro”, a murder mystery adventure, was the first lgbt+ video game. It was created in 1989 by transgender artist and computer programmer C. M. Ralph and was originally sold to raise funds for AIDS support charities.

16) Gay YouTuber Lukas Cruikshank (b.1993) was the first person to reach a million subscribers on a YouTube channel in 2009. The channel is called FRED and was set up with his cousins in 2006 when he was 13.

17) Genderfluid is claimed as modern concept, but back in antiquity the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates (c.460 BC-c.370 BC), after whom the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors is named, referred to sex and gender as being fluid over 2,000 years ago.

18) An ancestor of acclaimed gay actor Sir Ian McKellen (b.1939) invented the weekend. McKellen’s great-great-grandfather Robert Lowes (1817-1874) campaigned for workers to be given Saturday afternoon off work. Until then, only Sunday was a day that workers were allowed off. In later years workers were allowed Saturday morning off work as well.

19) The Portuguese word for deer, “veado”, is used as a slang term in Brazil for a gay man. It derives from the false assumption that deer regularly engage in homosexual acts.

20) Although exact figures are impossible to determine, the biggest Pride events to have taken place so far are World Pride 2019 in New York City and São Paulo Pride, Brazil, 2011. Both claim 4 million attendees. However, the Mayor of New York in 2019, Bill de Blasio, claimed there were 5 million who attended World Pride.

21) The oldest known gay graffiti is a carving of two erect phalluses and an erotic poem of gay sex between two men called Nikastimos and Timiona carved onto a rock on Astypalaia, a Greek island. The carving is 2,500 years old. It is not known if either of the men made the carving.

22) Gay composers Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) were among those invited to compose a national anthem by the newly independent Malaysia in 1957. Neither of their compositions were chosen.

23) In 2022 a species of trilobite, a fossil closely related to horseshoe crabs and woodlice, was named after gay singer Boy George. The species is called Agerins boygeorgie. The trilobite fossil was first found in Nevada, USA, and is over 443 million years old.

24) Lgbt+ individuals who have asteroids named after them include writers Simone de Beauvoir and Marcel Proust, astronomer Mike Wong; and the entertainer Eddie Suzie Izzard.

25) To celebrate the London 2012 Olympics, an organisation called Team Dorset (a county in England) published a list of 1,000 facts about their county. Fact 25 said that actor Laurence Olivier lived in Dorset and died in a motorcycle accident. Unfortunately, neither was true. Someone confused the bisexual Laurence Olivier with the gay adventurer Lawrence of Arabia who did live in Dorset and did die in a motorcycle accident (on a bike he bought from a company not a mile away from where I’m sitting right now).