Small Talks: Random LGBT Facts

Hey, everyone and welcome to Let's Be Perfectly Queer podcast. This week's episode is all about Random LGBT Facts! Join me as I dive into some fascinating and sometimes mind-boggling trivia about the LGBTQIA+ community.

Did you know that the planet Mercury is a symbol used for the transgender community? 🌙✨ Or that in 1987, Delta Airways apologized for suggesting they should pay less compensation for a life lost in a plane crash if the passenger was gay? It's shocking how far we've come since then! 🌍✈️

We'll also discuss the estimated 8.8 million LGBTQIA+ individuals in the US and approximately 1 million children raised by same-sex couples. Family is family, no matter who we love! ❤️🌈

Join me for an insightful conversation with Archie as we explore these queer facts and challenge societal stereotypes. Tune in to the Let's Be Perfectly Queer podcast to learn more!


Topics Discussed:

-  Random queer facts
-  Symbolism of the planet Mercury for the transgender community
-  Controversial fact about Delta Airways and compensation for a gay passenger
-  Lack of conclusive research on the causes of sexual orientation
-  Statistics and representation of the LGBTQ+ community worldwide
-  States in the united states with the highest and lowest concentrations of gay
    couples
-  Discrimination and homophobia in politically conservative regions
-  Relationship between left-handedness and sexual orientation
-  Influence of hormones in the womb
-  Historical instances of sexual ambiguity and queer literature
-  Animal species exhibiting homosexual behavior

Entities Mentioned:

-  Let's Be Perfectly Queer (Podcast)
-  Delta Airways
-  California
-  Walt Whitman
-  Bruce Nugent
-  Lisa Ben
-  Daughters of Bilitus
-  Nazi concentration camps
-  ACDC (sexuality term)
-  AIDS
-  Dwarf chimpanzee


If you have found anything we have spoken about in this episode difficult or triggering, you can reach out to the following services:

Phone:

• Lifeline is available 24/7 – 13 11 14
• Beyondblue is available 24/7 - 1300 224 636
• Crisis Care Helpline is available 24/7 – 1800 199 008
• Kids Helpline is available 24/7 – 1800 55 1800
• RUAH Community Services is available 24/7 - 13 78 24

Online:

• Head to health online chat  - headtohealth.gov.au
• RUAH Community Services - ruah.org.au or connect@ruah.org.au 

Transcript

Podcast: Let's Be Perfectly Queer Podcast

Episode Title: Queer Fun Facts

Host(s): Katie

Guest(s): 

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Katie (Host) | 00:00:00 to 00:00:12
Welcome to let's Be Perfectly Queer, a queer podcast creating space to talk about all things queer. My name is Archie. And I'm Katie. And we are your hosts. We are back.

Katie (Host) | 00:00:12 to 00:00:32
And what are we talking about on this episode? So on this episode, because last episode was a really hectic episode and we are recording them in sequential order. This episode is a really easy episode and is about some stupid facts I found about LGBT. It says 82 facts about the LGBT. Okay.

Katie (Host) | 00:00:32 to 00:00:46
It's this random, like, fact retriever dot com. Yep. And it's just this stupid site that's about. So where did you come upon random factretriever.com? well, I mean, sometimes I just peruse.

Katie (Host) | 00:00:46 to 00:00:53
Shit. Yeah, that's basically me. Do you know what it says? Interesting facts for the curious mind? And I felt like, that's me.

Katie (Host) | 00:00:53 to 00:01:04
Sure. So we've got 82, because that's the number interesting facts about LGBT. Want to get into it? Sure, let's do it. I'm just waiting for you.

Katie (Host) | 00:01:05 to 00:01:24
Number one, the planet Mercury is a symbol used for the transgender community. The sign for Mercury is a crescent shape with a cross. What? The sign for Mercury is a crescent shape and a cross which represents both the male and female principles in harmony in an individual. Never heard of that.

Katie (Host) | 00:01:25 to 00:01:30
Never heard of it either. Don't know if it's true. Okay. Fact or fiction? Shit, who knows?

Katie (Host) | 00:01:30 to 00:01:39
Someone tell us someone who's listening. Is that fact or is it fiction? Truth or false? Who knows? Number two, I'm not going to say because I can't actually pronounce the word.

Katie (Host) | 00:01:39 to 00:02:17
Okay. Number three, in 1987, Delta Airwaves Airways in America, anyway, apologised for arguing in a plane crash litigation that they should pay less for compensation for a life of a gay passenger. Referring to gay males because they said that heterosexual. So let me say that again because my brain was like. In 1987, Delta Airways apologised for arguing in plane crash litigations that they should pay less for in compensation for the life of a gay passenger than a heterosexual one because he may have AIDS.

Katie (Host) | 00:02:18 to 00:02:26
Wow. 1987 as well. That's only two years before you were born. Wasn't it still illegal to be gay in Australia two years before I was born? Absolutely.

Katie (Host) | 00:02:26 to 00:02:35
This was before who came along and was like, it's not a mental illness. Yeah. Honestly, it's fcking crazy. The number of gay and lesbians. So this was in 2019, by the way.

Katie (Host) | 00:02:35 to 00:02:46
So the number of gay and lesbians in the US is estimated approximately 8.8 million people. Oh, wow. That's pretty good. I don't know how many are in Australia. I have no idea.

Katie (Host) | 00:02:46 to 00:02:53
And I think that, you know, once they fix the census, we'll know. I know. That's so true. So true. Census people do it.

Katie (Host) | 00:02:53 to 00:03:02
Approximately 1 million children in the US are raised by same sex couples. Oh, I didn't know that. That's lovely. It is lovely. Not many.

Katie (Host) | 00:03:02 to 00:03:20
Definitely not many. No research. Can I just go back before you say that? So for those who say that the queer community are indoctrinating kids, apparently it's the straight community. If there is 8 million to the 1 million kids who are, you know, who have LGBTQIA parents.

Katie (Host) | 00:03:21 to 00:03:32
Absolutely. So true. So it's you, you straight heterosexuals listening. You're the ones who create queers. Have you noticed that most gay parents don't have gay kids?

Katie (Host) | 00:03:32 to 00:03:48
This is not based on statistics, but this is just like generally how it is. So you know how like often you have families where parents are heterosexual. They have all these kids and all the complement of kids are some form of gay. Yes. They're queer somehow.

Katie (Host) | 00:03:48 to 00:04:03
Those queer people, a lot of them don't have kids and the ones that do have kids don't have queer kids. Queer people aren't necessarily making the queers. It's you guys. Exactly. There's stats and data to back it up anyway.

Katie (Host) | 00:04:03 to 00:04:15
So no research has conclusively proven that what causes homosexuality, heterosexuality or bisexuality. That's. Yeah. Sounds pretty straightforward. Yeah, it does, doesn't it?

Katie (Host) | 00:04:15 to 00:04:38
Yeah, I love it. Scientists estimate that approximately 5% of the total human population worldwide have homosexual orientations. Interesting. I don't think. I think that would be really interesting if you actually looked at it because like, if you're thinking about it, 5% of the population, a lot of those areas you're not going to get statistics on because they don't.

Katie (Host) | 00:04:38 to 00:04:57
You're not doing censuses on in India in your rural communities about who's gay. Not happening. Also, they wouldn't be doing it in China as well because there's a lot of things that they don't censor. So in China they actually don't. Not saying that intersex people are necessarily queer, we've talked about that previously.

Katie (Host) | 00:04:57 to 00:05:16
But in China, part of their statistics, they don't count intersex people, they just do. Male or female. Yeah. So like there's all like 5% is nothing. There is a lot more than 5% of people who have homosexual orientation as well as you've got to encounter like some people have had homosexual experiences or Queer.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:16 to 00:05:20
I hate the word homosexual. I don't know why. I do. I find it triggering. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:20 to 00:05:28
Is it because of homophobia and then it's like, attached to that. Is that what it is? I think it's when we grew up and everyone's like, you're such a homo. Yeah. Like they still do.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:29 to 00:05:37
They still say it's just short for homosexual. Technically. So anyway, the state with the most gay people is California. Yeah. It doesn't surprise me.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:37 to 00:05:48
Guess how many people if there's 8 million in the US. Yeah. I'd say at least 4 million. Nah, unfortunately not approximately. 92,138.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:48 to 00:05:54
I say approximately. That's a very, like, accurate number. So why not accurate? Where are they all? I just thought that.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:54 to 00:06:01
Oh, if you think of America, you'd also have some. I guess you've got. Also got New York and Florida. I was going to say. No.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:01 to 00:06:06
Florida is pretty homophobic. It is, isn't it? With a don't say gay bill. Yeah. Maybe New Orleans.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:06 to 00:06:13
Don't know. Guess the state that's got the least gay couples. Texas. North Dakota. Oh, I thought it'd be Texas.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:13 to 00:06:30
Apparently they've only got 703 couples who are out. True. The US state district with the highest concentration of gay couples is Washington, dc. Just a quick trigger warning. We are going to talk about suicide just for a second.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:30 to 00:06:43
So if that is triggering, please take care while listening. So gay teen suicides are more common in politically conservative regions. Doesn't surprise me. We know this. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:43 to 00:06:55
Why is this? Because they're not accepted. When you're not accepted, it's hard to live in a state where people are going to persecute you. Yeah. Like, if you're going to get bashed for being gay, it's not going to make you feel great about yourself.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:55 to 00:07:19
No. You're going to end up hating your life because you're not going to be safe anywhere safe at work, at home, at school or anywhere you're not going to be safe. I do bring this back to my experience and living in a small country town, that the whole community were very open about their hatred and disgust towards the queer community. It was so normalised. It's because you can't be diluted.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:19 to 00:07:34
In a big city, you get diluted and, like, there are more people with more ideas and more people to be like, hey, that's a stupid way of thinking. Why do you hate a whole group of people? Right. And then you don't know that group of people. And then my family wonder why I have not been Back.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:34 to 00:07:51
I have not been back since I transitioned because of the disgusting homophobic comments and ideology that comes out of that town. Unfortunately, you know. Yeah, true. Apparently gay people tend to be left handed much more than heterosexual. I think I've heard that fact before.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:51 to 00:08:04
Hmm. I wonder, I wonder if that's different in different countries. Because you know how, like, back in the day, it used to be beaten out of you if you were left handed, whereas now left handed, it's just like. Yeah, yeah, left handed is what it is. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:08:04 to 00:08:19
Your writing's just gonna smudge. Yeah. I mean, yeah, whiteboards are not gonna be your friend. No, not at all. Gay or lesbian teens are 50% more likely to use alcohol and three times more likely to use marijuana than heterosexual teens.

Katie (Host) | 00:08:20 to 00:08:52
They are also more likely to be homeless. Yeah, I knew this fact because we did a PD teaching PD about this and, well, I did a PD about it that, yes, kids who are LGBT are more likely to turn towards substance abuse, alcohol, drugs, which doesn't surprise me at all. There's this one, and I don't know how I feel about it because I don't feel like it's real. So it says that there's some evidence that increased levels of steroids in the womb increases the chance that a girl will be a lesbian. This is quite interesting.

Katie (Host) | 00:08:53 to 00:08:59
So in university I did a radio story, right? Yeah. And I looked at. I can't remember. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Katie (Host) | 00:08:59 to 00:09:20
So I was talking to someone who was kicked out of home because they were gay. And so as part of the assessment, you had to do some kind of research and stuff. And he's like, oh, why don't you research, you know, what makes someone gay? Anyway, so I was like, this doesn't make sense. But sure, I went and I looked at medical journals and I went all down the road, rabbit hole.

Katie (Host) | 00:09:20 to 00:09:41
And actually, so there was some basis to this. Okay. And so there was some research, like, look, take this with a grain of salt, because ADHD memory. But in this research that I remember from my point of view, it said something about steroids, but it also said something about the hormones that the mom produces. Right.

Katie (Host) | 00:09:41 to 00:10:01
Okay. So for example, if a mom has three boys, if the first two are straight, it is more likely that the last one will be gay because of the hormones and the kids in there taking the testosterone from the mom's womb and being straight. Right. Take this, a grain of salt. And so the same thing would happen.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:01 to 00:10:34
So, for example, if you were to have two boys and a girl, if the first guy is straight, the second son is gay, then they might have taken all the oestrogen or whatever it may be, or that's not how sexuality works. But it's like some of the theories. The daughter would take the testosterone from the womb and be more likely to be lesbian. But that doesn't make sense because gay, I don't know. Because there is nothing proving, like, there's no evidence to say that lesbians have high level of testosterone or that gay men have lower levels of testosterone.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:34 to 00:10:49
Because that's actually not true. It's an interesting theory. It's an interesting theory. And like, I don't know if it's true. Like, it was one medical journal that I read when I was like, you know, in university, but I just thought it was quite interesting and I was like, oh, you know, it's just something interesting to think about.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:49 to 00:11:09
Yeah. Apparently homosexuality has been recorded in China since ancient times and it has often been referred to as, in quotations, the cut sleeve and the pleasure of the bitten peach. Interesting. I'm assuming it's bad translation. Who knows?

Katie (Host) | 00:11:09 to 00:11:42
Scholars specuate. Specuate. 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 are predominantly Muslim, China has no dominant religion to fuel debates against homosexuality. Therefore, researchers believe that homophobia in China is simply a European import.

Katie (Host) | 00:11:42 to 00:12:07
Interesting. Oh, if one identical twin is gay, the other one has about a 20 to 50% chance of being gay because it's not 100%. Scientists speculate that homosexuality is a result of the interplay of environmental factors, surge of hormones in the room, a virus, etc. And genetics. I'm pretty sure we've said this on the podcast before.

Katie (Host) | 00:12:07 to 00:12:15
Yeah, I think we have. Yeah. Because you're a twin. Yeah, I think we've said this before, but you and you and your sister, very different. Correct.

Katie (Host) | 00:12:15 to 00:12:45
Studies have shown that gay men have more feminised 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 function and eye blinking reactions to loud noises. What? Wait a minute. Since when is blinking to fast reactions a male thing and knowing where objects are a female thing?

Katie (Host) | 00:12:45 to 00:12:54
These scientists. Do you know where objects are? I do. I always know where objects are, thank you very much. Anyway, that makes no sense.

Katie (Host) | 00:12:54 to 00:13:22
So in 1629, the Virginia Court recorded the first instance of sexual ambiguity. Ambiguity. Sorry, I find it really hard saying that word. Among the American colonists, a servant called Thomast or Thomasine hall is officially declared by the governor as both a man and a woman and ordered to wear articles of each sex's clothing. Interesting.

Katie (Host) | 00:13:22 to 00:13:31
How does that work? Like a skirt and a pant. Do you reckon it would be like alternate days? Maybe? I was thinking more like skirt below and like a button up.

Katie (Host) | 00:13:31 to 00:13:39
Like that kind of look. Isn't that just what they normally wore? The women normally wore just like buttons up and skirts. I don't know. Maybe she had to wear a top hat.

Katie (Host) | 00:13:39 to 00:13:44
Maybe. Maybe they had to wear a top hat and bow tie. Maybe. And a moustache. Possibly.

Katie (Host) | 00:13:44 to 00:13:59
With long hair. Possibly. I have no idea. Look like Dave Crawl. In 1860, Walt Whitman published their homoerotic Leaves of Grass, which later inspired numerous gay poets.

Katie (Host) | 00:13:59 to 00:14:22
Do you have any verses from that? No, I don't. Oh, how interesting. The first published piece about homosexuality by an African American writer is a short story called Smoke, Lilies and Jade by Bruce Nugent. The first US lesbian magazine was titled Vice Versa and was written by the pseudonym Lisa Ben.

Katie (Host) | 00:14:22 to 00:14:40
An anagram for lesbian. Very cool. I like that. I like that too. The first lesbian organisation in the United States was formed in 1955 called the Daughters of Bilitus, which is really hard to read and is founded in San Francisco by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon.

Katie (Host) | 00:14:40 to 00:15:12
I wonder what they did Also for a country that is so homophobic now, they did have a lot of queer individuals pave the way forward for the LGBTQIA community, and it's so sad to see how far backwards they've come in the last few years. Yeah, it's so true, isn't it? I don't believe this is Factory because we've talked about the pink triangle, but it says the pink triangle was a symbol gay men would wear in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Yeah, that's correct. Oh, wait, that is the pink triangle.

Katie (Host) | 00:15:12 to 00:15:16
We already know that. Is that the same one? Yes. Did we actually say that? Yes.

Katie (Host) | 00:15:16 to 00:15:30
Shit, man. Love ya. Nice to see that you actually pay attention to me. I do at the time, sure. In 1960s, the term ACDC referred to a person who had sex with men or women.

Katie (Host) | 00:15:30 to 00:15:49
That came from the abbreviation of two types of electrical currents, as alternative currents and a direct current. So bisexual people were ACDCs? Acadacas. Yeah. Did you know in 1982, the Gay Related Immune Disorder Grid was renamed AIDS?

Katie (Host) | 00:15:49 to 00:15:56
So what was it originally called? Gay Related Immune Disorder. Oh, I didn't realise that. I didn't know that. Is that true?

Katie (Host) | 00:15:56 to 00:16:04
I don't know. Yeah. Wow. This is the First AIDS alert. The disease was first given the name grid.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:04 to 00:16:17
Gay related immune disorder, gay plague or even gay syndrome. I knew about the gay syndrome, but I didn't know like that was the name that was given to her. The first one that you said. Yeah, it's like, what is GRID disease? Oh my gosh.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:17 to 00:16:24
That's crazy. Oh, wow. This is a good one. Are we going to finish on this one? We're going to finish on this one because I really like it.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:24 to 00:16:43
It's very cute. The entire species of dwarf chimpanzee are bisexual. I didn't even know there was such a thing called a dwarf chimpanzee. I know. Homosexual behaviour has been observed in over 1500 animal species and is most widespread among animals with a herd complex.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:43 to 00:16:48
Interesting. Did not know that. Oh, yeah, I guess. Yeah. Because we all want to belong and be a part of a herd.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:48 to 00:16:56
So yeah, yeah, we're just another version of an animal. Don't blame us. Blame biology. Exactly. Thanks for listening, guys.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:56 to 00:17:12
I really appreciate it. Sometimes we just need light hearted shit. And like, to be honest, I was whipping through a lot of them and they're quite entertaining and I don't know how true they are, but it's funny when the ones that sound the least true and you have a look at them and you're like, shit, they're actually true. Yeah. Like grids.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:12 to 00:17:16
Yeah. I would not have known that. Yeah. Learn something new every day. You do.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:16 to 00:17:23
So I can. For listening, do a. Subscribe no. Have you not watched Monty Python? People love Monty Python.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:24 to 00:17:33
We could be the new Monty Python. I don't think so. Do you not think that's the box we can go into? No, I think it is. I think we're two different podcasts mushed together as one.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:33 to 00:17:39
Rate, review and subscribe. Give us five stars. We love us. You love us. It's great.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:39 to 00:17:51
I think Katie's gone delirious, so it's time to end the episode. Thanks so much for listening. Don't forget you can find us on Instagram. Let's be Perfectly Queer. Podcast and send us a message.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:51 to 00:18:03
Send us a dm. Get in touch and send us an email. Let's be Perfect. Really queer pod mail.com and you can send us a message now on just your listening platforms. Yep.

Katie (Host) | 00:18:03 to 00:18:23
That link right at the top that says send us a text message. It goes to our new inbox called Fan Mail. So send us a message and we'd love to hear from you. Unfortunately, we can't reply through the fan mail unless you give us your instagram handle or something like that. We can't actually reply through the fan mail, but please send through if you want to send through stuff anonymously.

Katie (Host) | 00:18:23 to 00:18:37
Share your stories. We really would love that if you did that. And if you want us to specifically share, just tell us that you want us to write it on the podcast and we'll have a read of it. It'll be great. Until next time, I hope that we have been perfectly queer.