Kev Maxen, an associate strength ach wh the Jacksonville Jaguars, has bee the first male ach a major U.S.-based profsnal league to e out as gay.
Contents:
- WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
- LBIAN ALBATROSS AND GAY GIRAFF? THE SCIENCE ON SAME-SEX SEXUALY ANIMALS
- SCIENTISTS: BEG GAY IS GOOD, IF YOU'RE A BIRD
- JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
Nearly one-fifth of all long-term greylag gee upl are gay, posed of two mal. They're not alone: More than 130 bird speci are known to engage homosexual behavr at least ocsnally, a fact that has puzzled all, evolutnary terms same-sex matg seems to rce the birds' chanc of reproductive succs. In some speci the same-sex pairs even raise young (nceived wh outsi partners, obvly) and stay together for several 2007, a team led by Geoff MacFarlane, a blogist at the Universy of Newstle Atralia, reported that male homosexual behavr was more mon polygyno bird speci, where mal mate wh numero femal, and that female homosexual behavr was more mon monogamo speci.
Srg sexTo fd out whether the theory might extend to homosexual behavr, MacFarlane and his team exhstively bed the lerature for acunts of same-sex urtship, mountg, or pair bondg. They foced on the 93 bird speci whose homosexual teractns scientists had seen the wild. For each speci, the team lculated the equency of homosexual behavr as well as both sex' ntributns to parentg.
Overall, homosexual behavr amounted to ls than 5 percent of all sexual activy the 93 speci, though some s was much higher. And sure enough, there was a strong rrelatn between a speci' matg system and s homosexual behavr. The balance shifted to femal socially monogamo speci, where the sex spl the work more far, female homosexualy hasn't turned up the handful of birds where each female mat wh many mal, but MacFarlane's team predicts may.
LBIAN ALBATROSS AND GAY GIRAFF? THE SCIENCE ON SAME-SEX SEXUALY ANIMALS
"Homosexual behavr is more likely to be mataed and not be selected agast than if you are a sex that r a lot for offsprg and only has one or few reproductive partners, " he wh plenty of reproductive prospects, a ltle homosexual behavr won't have much effect on long-term reproductive succs, MacFarlane said.
"That's que different to what the tradnal argument is the lerature, where homosexual behavr is seen as a st. "In some s, homosexual allianc may even be adaptive, helpg dividuals fend terrori, advance their social stat, or get help wh parental re. “People always e up wh the argument that homosexualy is somehow agast nature.
" a 2006 exhibn at the Norwegian Natural History Mm of the Universy of Oslo that ed mols, photos, texts, and specimens (like the swans to the right) to rm visors about a small selectn of "gay" animals. Scientists have observed homosexual behavr hundreds of animal speci, om sects to sheep. Bonobos, one of our clost relativ, may be the most well-known homosexual whal, bottlenose dolphs, Wt Indian manate, and giraff are known to have all-male i.
SCIENTISTS: BEG GAY IS GOOD, IF YOU'RE A BIRD
Homosexualy is most wispread among animals wh a plex herd life.
Homosexualy also plays a social role among other male animals, such as big horn sheep and lns. But rearchers have no ia what the advantage is, if any, of homosexual behavr among dragonfli, srab beetl, or, as observed at least once, two male octop of different speci.
JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
“This lony is lerally the largt proportn of — I don’t know what the rrect term is: ‘homosexual animals’? Sopoulos-Lloyd’s experience is echoed by many people who intify as LGBTQ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer), and who have lived much of their liv feelg “othered” by a society that centers people who are whe, straight, and cisgenr (their assigned sex at birth match their genr inty). “Birdg trips wh straight men have been very difficult, ” says Chase Mennhall, a cisgenr gay man and curator of birds at the Carnegie Mm of Natural History.