Facts About The LGBT You Never Knew

–Approximately one in three gay men prefer to not engage in anal sex.

–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.

–Records of same-sex relationships have been found in nearly every culture throughout history with varying degrees of acceptance.

–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.

–The number of gays and lesbians in the U.S. is estimated to be approximately 8.8 million.

–Same-sex couples are raising about 1 million children in the U.S.

–Approximately 1 million children in the U.S. are being raised by same-sex couples.

–No research has conclusively proven what causes homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.

–Scientists estimate that approximately 5% of the total human population worldwide has a homosexual orientation.

–Historians note that in some cultures, homosexual behavior was not viewed as effeminate but as evidence of a man’s masculinity. Examples include the Celtic and Greek cultures.

–The state with the most gay couples is California, with approximately 92,138. The state with the least gay couples in North Dakota, with approximately 703 couples.

–The three U.S. cities that have the most gay couples are New York City (47,000), Los Angeles (12,000), and Chicago (10,000). The major metropolitan cities with the highest LGBT concentration are San Francisco 15.4%, Seattle 12.9%, and Atlanta 12.8%.

-Gay people tend to be left-handed much more often than heterosexuals.

–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.

–There is some evidence that increased levels of steroids in the womb increases the chances that a girl will be a lesbian.

–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.

–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.”

–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.

–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.

–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.

–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.

–A study has found that having older brothers makes it 3 times more likely for a male to be gay

–Canadian researchers have documented what they call the “big-brother effect,” which postulates that a male with older brothers is three times more likely to be gay than a boy with no older brothers. They argue that this may be a result of the complex association among hormones, antigens, and a mother’s immune system.

–One of the earliest recorded accounts of bisexuality in America was by Spanish explorer Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca who, in the early sixteenth century, mentions “effeminate” Indians in Florida who “go about dressed as women and do women’s tasks.”

–In 1629, the Virginia Court recorded the first instance of gender ambiguity among the American colonists. A servant named Thomas/Thomasine Hall is officially declared by the governor to be both “a man and a woman” and ordered to wear articles of each sex’s clothing.

–Nicholas Biddle, a member of the Lewis and Clark expeditions, recorded that “among Minitarees [Indians], if a boy shows any symptom of effeminacy or girlish inclinations, he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them, and sometimes married to men . . . the French called them Birdashes [sic].”

–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.

–Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, and Argentina. In Mexico, same-sex marriage is legal but performed only in Mexico City.

–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.