50 interesting facts from the world history of LGBT people

The modern history of the LGBT community is fairly well studied, but there are facts that are known to few.
 
1. The world's oldest "pornography", which includes same-sex and heterosexual sex, appeared more than 3 thousand years ago. One of the earliest depictions of sexual intercourse shows that bisexuality was the norm even then. Petroglyphs, rock carvings found in a remote region in northwest China, demonstrate a fertility ritual.

2. The oldest gay couple ever known appears to be from Ancient Egypt. Two men named Niankhnum and Khnumhotep were manicurists at the royal court in the city of Sakkara and were buried together as a married couple in 2400 BC.

3. One of the first prototypes of modern "sex chats" (on papyrus) can also be found in Ancient Egypt. For a long time, the mythological Set and Horus, uncle and nephew, argued over who should be king. A fragment of papyrus contains a dialogue where Seth persuades Horus to sleep with him: “How beautiful are your buttocks! And how muscular your thighs are! " Seth hoped that by dominating sex, he would gain royal status. But as legend has it, Horus, who consents to sex, then tricks Seth into infiltrating his uncle and eventually becoming king.

4. Some historical figures elevated their lovers to the status of gods. Alexander the Great wanted to proclaim his lover Hephaestion as a god, but he could only declare him a divine hero after death. The Roman emperor Hadrian achieved more and deified his beloved Antinous after he drowned in the Nile.


5. The Church could sanctify same-sex marriages in the so-called "dark ages" in the era of the Byzantine emperor Basil 1 (867−886) and his partner John. The Christian attitude towards same-sex unions has not always been so “unequivocal”. The Kiev Art Museum keeps an interesting icon from the Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai. It depicts two Christian saints, between whom is the traditional Roman pronubus (the groom's witness), which was depicted in the wedding portrait of a husband and wife. In the icon of the two saints, Christ is the pronubus. But in the role of husband and wife there are two men. Apparently we are talking about St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, two Roman soldiers who became Christian martyrs. In one of the earliest Greek sources of the 10th century, St. Sergius is openly called the "companion and lover" of St. Bacchus.

6. According to the myth of Aristophanes about the origin of love, our ancestors were bisexual, had two genitals, four arms and legs, and two faces on one head. Men with two faces came from the sun, with two women - from the earth, and with a male and female face - from the moon. Disgruntled Zeus cut them in half. And from that day, according to legend, we are looking for our half in order to recreate the lost whole. “When someone, be it a lover of young men or any other, happens to meet his half, both are seized with such an amazing feeling of affection, closeness and love that they truly do not want to be separated, even for a short time,” says Aristophanes.

7. The child of Aphrodite and Hermes, Hermaphrodite was a symbol of androgyny and was depicted in Greco-Roman art with male and female genitals, embodying male and female qualities. According to legend, at the age of 15, the hero encountered a nymph in the pool. Obsessed with his beauty, she tried to seduce him, but was rejected. When he decided he was alone, Hermaphrodite undressed and entered the pool. But the nymph, jumping into the water, turned around the boy, forcibly kissing him. As they fought, she called on the gods to unite them forever. Her desire was fulfilled and both bodies merged into one form. The oldest traces of the cult of Hermaphrodite are found in Cyprus, where a bearded statue of Aphrodite was located.

8. The ancient Greeks did not divide men into heterosexuals and homosexuals. Only active and passive sexual roles mattered. The most common form of same-sex relationships was the relationship, in which the older man "erastes" acted as a mentor and lover for the younger "eromenos" (eromenos). The Greeks believed that semen was the source of knowledge and it could be "transmitted".

9. The legendary ancient Greek squad from Thebes, consisting of 150 homosexual male couples, was the elite of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. In the battle with Spata, the squad defeated the Spartan army and remained undefeated for 30 years.

10. In ancient China, homosexuality was associated with the image of the "cut sleeve" and "the sweetness of a bitten peach." The sleeve image originated from Emperor Han Ai and his lover Dong Xian. When the emperor had to get up early in the morning, he carefully cut off the sleeve of his robe so as not to wake the sleeping lover. In Chinese culture, the image of a cut off sleeve is entrenched to express same-sex love. According to another legend, recorded by the Chinese philosopher Han Fei, the emperor's lover found a sweet peach in the garden and, having bitten it, shared the other half.

11. Until the late 1400s, the word "girl" in English (girl) meant a child of any gender. If you wanted to point to male children, you called them "knave girls" and girls "gay girls".

12. The word "drag" (drag lady) appears to be an abbreviation. A theatrical word coined by Shakespeare and his contemporaries meant "dressed like a girl." (Dressed Resembling A Girl ').

13. The Virginia court in 1629 tried the case of the first gender-non-binary person among the colonists. A man named Thomas (Thomasina) Hall (Thomas / Thomasine) appeared before the court as "a man and a woman." Hall did not commit a crime, but the authorities were puzzled by the gender role. Thomasina was baptized and raised as a girl, but dressed as a man and as a woman. As a result, the court left for Hall the right to wear men's clothing, but with a women's headdress. Thus, the court upheld the right to dual identity and to wear clothes of both sexes.

14. In the early 17th century, there was a gay brothel in London where Buckingham Palace is now located.

15. Nicholas Biddle, an early explorer of America, discovered in 1806 that among the Minitarees, "if boys show symptoms of femininity or girlish tendencies, they are raised as girls and sometimes married to men."

16. One of the kings of Uganda was gay. King Mwanga II, who ruled from 1884 to 1888, reportedly had love affairs exclusively with male servants.

17. In the 19th century, the word "gay" referred to a woman who was a prostitute. And "gay" was also called a man who slept with a lot of women.

18. Homosexual men in London in the 1900s drew up their own slang language (Polari) to be able to communicate in public without fear of arrest. Some words have survived in modern slang, such as naff (lack of style), to be had, (sexually approachable), omi (man), trade (sex) and more than 500 other words.

19. Carmilla, an 1872 gothic novella about a lesbian vampire who preyed on young women, was written by Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 26 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).

20. The United States already had a gay president, James Buchanan, elected in 1857. For 10 years, he met with future Vice President William Rufus King, and President Andrew Jackson called him "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy."

21. One theory is that the modern use of the word "gay" comes from "gaycat," a vagrant slang term for a boy who sees a more experienced man as a protector in exchange for sexual favors.

22. Although the monocle was out of use, it had a huge following. The monocle gained acceptance in lesbian circles in the early 20th century, where lesbians wore a monocle for effect. Such women were Una Lady Trubridge, Radcliffe Hall and the Weimar German reporter Sylvia von Harden. The painting "Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden" by the German expressionist painter Otto Dix also depicts this subject.


23. The first American star to come out as openly gay was actor William (Billy) Haynes in 1933. Haynes' acting career was cut short in the 30s due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality. He gave up his film career in 1935 and started a successful interior design business with his partner Jimmy Shields. His friends in Hollywood supported him. Haynes died in 1973 at the age of 73.

24. The world's oldest LGBT organization is the Netherlands Cultural and Recreation Center (COC), which was founded in 1946 and used a neutral name to disguise its forbidden purpose.

25. Gays, victims of the Nazi extermination, who wore the pink triangle on their camp uniforms, were still considered criminals after their release from the concentration camps. After 1945, they were often sent back to prison under an article punishing same-sex relationships.

26. Violets are beautiful and delightful flowers, but they are also one of the most famous symbols of female homosexuality, possibly dating back to the poem in which Sappho describes himself and his beloved in garlands of violets: “If you forget me, think about our gifts to Aphrodite
and the charm that we shared. All violet diadems, rosebuds and crocus are wrapped around your young neck. "

At the beginning of the 20th century, women gave each other violets in order to say: "I like you." Although the historical symbolism of violets may have been forgotten, purple is often associated with homosexuality. For example, in the name "lavender boys" to refer to gay men in the middle of the last century.

27. In the 1950s, people in the gay community tried to change the word “homosexual” to “homophile”. They hoped that a focus on same-sex love (phil) rather than "sex" would help them socialize.

28. Playboy has been loved by the reading public for decades. But there were moments that created his reputation. Magazine founder Hugh Hefner was the only one who accepted Charles Beaumont's 1955 science fiction tale of a world in which heterosexuals were outnumbered - against the majority of gays. When outraged readers inundated him with letters, he said: "If it is wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse is also not true."

29. The Royal Navy commissioned a class of fast patrol boats in the 1950s with the word "gay" in the name. These were boats: "Gay Bruiser" and "Gay Charger".

30. It was popular for lesbians to have tattoos, blue stars on their wrists, to identify themselves in clubs. In the 1940s, many of them tattooed a starfish on their inner wrist as a sign of their sexuality. During the day, ladies could put watches on them and open the drawing at night.

31. Jimi Hendrix pretended to be gay to retire from the army in 1962. According to one version, he left the 101st Airborne Division at the age of 19 due to the fact that he was injured while jumping with a parachute. But army records show he was fired for "homosexual tendencies." According to the recollections of friends, Hendrix had a legendary appetite for women. But he told a psychiatrist at Fort Campbell that he had fallen in love with a co-worker.

32. John Brunner's 1969 science fiction novel Stand on Zanzibar accurately predicted the massive acceptance of LGBT people in society, the growth of the Chinese economy, satellite television, the advent of laser printers, and the popularity of marijuana.

33. In the 1960s, the term "alternating current" (AC / DC) became a popular slang term for bisexuals.

34. Barbara Jordan, lawyer, politician, leader of the Civil Rights movement, was the first African American woman to be elected to the Texas Senate in 1973. She was also a Democrat and a lesbian. She later became the first black woman to give a keynote speech at a Democratic convention.

35. Hitherto unidentified serial killer Doodler, who has 16 victims, hunted gays in the 1970s in San Francisco. He painted his victims naked before killing them with a knife. After three victims survived, a portrait of him was compiled. Currently, the case is still open.

36. Mel Boozer, an African-American human rights activist, became the first openly gay person to be nominated for the position of US Vice President in 1980.


37. The first gay doll, Gay Bob, appeared in 1977. Bob had a pierced left ear and the box was made in the shape of a cabinet.

38. Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was the first openly gay US military veteran of the Vietnam War to be awarded the Order of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Fighting the ban on gay service in the military made him one of the most famous openly gay men of the 70s, along with Harvey Milk. The epitaph on Matlovich's grave reads: "When I was in the army, I was given a medal for the murder of two people and dismissal for love of one."

39. In the early 1980s, it became known that the Naval Investigation Service had previously investigated a 'case' of gay men in Chicago. ” Hearing that gays call themselves "Dorothy's friends," the investigation put in a lot of effort in search of an elusive woman who was clearly at the center of a secret network. The expression "Dorothy's friends" dates back to World War II, when same-sex sex was banned in the United States and it was a euphemism used to refer to sexual orientation.

40. In the 1985 film Back to the Future, the scene was removed where Marty tells Doc that he fears hitting his mother might make him gay.

41. Ben Affleck's 1993 directorial debut was titled, "I Killed My Lesbian Wife and Hang Her on a Meat Hook." Affleck commented on his early work: “It's awful, awful. I knew I wanted to direct and made a couple of short films, but this is the only one that haunts me. I'm not proud of him. "

42. The US government has considered the gay bomb issue. In 1994, scientists tried to calculate whether spraying female sex hormones over enemy positions would cause same-sex attraction in the enemy's ranks.

43. Actor John Barrowman (known for playing Doctor Who) in 1998 almost got the role of Will in Will and Grace. But he lost it because the producers considered him "too heterosexual." Despite the fact that Barrowman is gay, and Eric McCormack, who played this role, is "straight".

44. Peter Tatchell, an Australian LGBT activist living in the UK, tried in 1999 to arrest Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe during a visit to Britain. He went up to Mugabe, grabbed the dictator's hand and said, "President Mugabe, you are under arrest for torture."


45. In 2004, LGBT activists from Australia created a mini-nation called Gays and Lesbians of the Coral Sea. They chose the LGBT rainbow flag as their national flag, and the euro as their official currency. The young nation still exists today, issuing rainbow stamps.

46. A group of citizens from the Greek island of Lesbos in 2008 demanded an injunction for LGBT organizations to use the word “lesbian” in names and documents, arguing that it “offends” them around the world. The claim was dismissed.

47. The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported in 2009 the existence of a Swedish city with thousands of lesbians who are forbidden to talk to men. “The city is home to about 25,000 lesbians from all over Europe,” the agency reported. - If men enter the forbidden city, they will be beaten to a pulp. The tourism industry is becoming more and more prosperous, with hotels and restaurants everywhere that are specifically targeted at women from all over the world. " As a result, several Swedish travel agencies have received a flurry of requests from Chinese tourists.

48. In 2010, Microsoft prohibited an Xbox Live user from listing Fort Gay as their address. To prove that Fort Gay actually exists in West Virginia, he turned to the city's mayor for help and confirmation.

49. A Hong Kong billionaire offered $ 65 million to a man who could marry his lesbian daughter. So far no one has been found.

50. For the first time, the same-sex kiss was shown in Saudi Arabia in 2012, as part of the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games. Oscar-winning director of the ceremony Danny Boyle included footage of 1993 from the British TV series Brookside in the ceremony, causing a flurry of discontent in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is illegal.

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