Around the world in 80 gays

What always amazes me are unexpected connections between people, places and events. Those of my age may remember James Burke's TV series called "Connections". It was a bit like the "6 degrees of separation" game.

My brain is full of LGBT "Connections". I thought I'd use these to develop a little game for next year's LGBT exhibition. It's called "Around the World in 80 Gays". I'm so enthusiastic about it that I've even copyrighted the title and idea. There's a lot of local lLGBT connections that reach around the world and back again. One idea I had for my game is a "floor-tour". At the exhibition a trail of footprints on the floor will lead from one display panel to another, giving a link between the two, and on to another one. I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to include "80 Gays" (actually 80 LGBTs) but I'm going to have fun trying.Until then, here's an example of how to get from Kenneth Willams to Dorothy's Ruby Slippers in 5 moves:

1) Kenneth Williams was a close friend of Leicester's Joe Orton.
2) Joe Orton's biography, "Prick Up Your Ears", was written by John Lahr.
3) John Lahr also wrote the biography of his own father, Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz".
4) The Cowardly Lion costume was designed by gay costume designer Adrian.
5) Adrian also designed Dorothy's Ruby Slippers.

If you know any similar connections with a local to global link, let me know. You could end up with a mention at the exhibition.

What's been happening?

It's been a busy time since LGBT History Month. Many thanks to all who came to the exhibition launch at Waterstones and those who came to see it during the week. I was particularly pleased to see my family trees high on the list of favourite sections. I am still researching the ancestry of a couple of members of the local LGBT community, one of them Narvel Annable.This week I was asked by the BBC to come up with some ghostly and ghastly LGBT stories. There are hundreds of "ghastly" stories to tell of homophobia, abuse and discrimination - but I got the impression that that dumbed-down, tabloid-style titillation stories were all they were interested in. They certainly showed no sign of interest in hearing the truth about that vile, football manager bigot they help to glorify.

Fortunately there was a story which immediately came to mind because it happened (quite literally) in my back yard. When I first moved to Nottingham I lived at Canning Circus in one of the old almshouses at the entrance to the cemetery. About a year after I moved in I noticed one morning that the cemetery gates were locked. I discovered later that a chopped-up human body had been found in several black bin-liners. I was quite shocked because I remembered walking past those bin-liners the day before.

The body was that of Grenville Carter, a gay loner who lived a few doors away. He had befriended a bisexual rough-sleeper in the cemetery called Simon Charles and invited him to share his flat with him. All very charitable and worthy but it is a classic case of not picking up someone in strange circumstances. After a few weeks Charles began to get violent. Then one day he snapped, and strangled Grenville with an electric flex. Charles said at his trial "he was irritating". Grenville's body was sliced up with a Stanley knife and hacksaw and deposited in the cemetery. Charles claimed he got the idea after reading about the gay serial killer Denis Nilsen.
Several days later Charles gave himself up. He's now serving a life sentence. What is even scarier is the fact that Charles had already served a prison sentence for attempted murder in Manchester.

A macabre twist is that Charles considered creating a "work of art" out of Grenville's body parts. "I didn't think Grenville would mind", Charles said at his trial.All this is horrible, but I hope that Grenville Carter, on what would have been his 65th birthday this month, will be remembered for his charitable act rather than by the manner of his death.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk