Farmer Sutra! Are gay rams really a problem the sheep dtry? | Farmg | The Guardian

Contents:

• CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
• ARE ANY ANIMALS GAY? THE TTH ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY THE ANIMAL KGDOM
• 11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL
• FARMER SUTRA! ARE GAY RAMS REALLY A PROBLEM THE SHEEP DTRY?
• HOW DO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE GAY/HOMOSEXUAL ANIMALS IMPACT THE IA THAT HOMOSEXUALY IS A S?

CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?

Asked by: Jack England, DorchterHomosexual behavur has been observed at least 1, 500 different animal speci.

ARE ANY ANIMALS GAY? THE TTH ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY THE ANIMAL KGDOM

In fact, no speci has actually been monstrated to show no cince of homosexual behavur at all, apart om those that don't actually have sex. The qutn of whether animals n be gay is one that has long fascated and ed nsternatn to scientists and laypeople alike. Neverthels, the topic of same-sex behavur animals, and how such behavurs may have e to evolve is a fascatg the terms ‘gay’ and ‘heterosexual’ shouldn't really be applied to animalsDpe s e our tle, terms like 'gay' or 'heterosexual’ may not be the bt to e when scribg sexual behavurs animals.

Bee of this, animal ‘homosexualy’ has often been ignored, or else scientists have enavoured to fd var adaptive benefs to expla s of the adaptive explanatns clu var hypothised social benefs. Contrary to this le of thought, however, more recent terpretatns have qutned whether the paradox of animal ‘homosexualy’ is really a paradox at all.

11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL

Over the past 20 years, a burst of rearch — driven part by a new generatn of scientists more acceptg of queerns — has shown signifint amounts of prevly unreported homosexual behavr throughout the animal kgdom, om flour beetl to gorillas. While few animals are exclively “gay” or “lbian, ” an extraordary number, appears, engage some form of same-sex relatns.

Christian theologians have long poted to the absence of animal homosexualy as evince that humans oughtn’t to be dog , eher. Thirteenth-century philosopher and prit Thomas Aquas argued that homosexual behavr humans is wrong precisely bee don’t occur between animals.

FARMER SUTRA! ARE GAY RAMS REALLY A PROBLEM THE SHEEP DTRY?

Gee Murray Levick, the explorer who wrote about homosexual behavr Adélie pengus 1911, shield his observatns of pengu “pravy” om sual observers by rerdg them his field not g the Greek alphabet — and they were still cut om the official expedn reports. A proment mammalogist, Valeri Geist, uldn’t help but notice equent homosexual sex at his bighorn sheep field se the 1960s, but Geist avoid publishg those fdgs bee ma him “crge … to nceive of those magnificent beasts as ‘queers.

’ ” Years later he relented, wrg that he eventually “admted that the rams lived sentially a homosexual society.

The fact that a bird populatn wh many bond femal sharg a few mal between them would have higher reproductive output led historian and ornhologist Jared Diamond to dryly wonr whether “further study of homosexually paired female birds may help clarify what, if anythg, mal are good for — an evolutnary sense, of urse. ” In social animals, the logic go, absolute homosexualy would produce no offsprg, but absolute heterosexualy uld also be limg, as might make for an anism that is “poor at formg social allianc.

HOW DO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE GAY/HOMOSEXUAL ANIMALS IMPACT THE IA THAT HOMOSEXUALY IS A S?

“The bisexual advantage mol, ” Savolaen nclus, “is perhaps the most nservative geic explanatn for the persistence of homosexual behavr. Therefore, aversn to homosexual sex would have had to specifilly arise over the history of life, which this team of rearchers fds unlikely, sce the opportuny st of same-sex sex is relatively low.

The bonobo ap, for example, palize on the release of the bondg hormone oxytoc durg homosexual sex to strengthen the social allianc between femal. Vasey and his team methodilly tted the var theori that have been proposed for the persistence of homosexual sex the monkeys: that the femal were exprsg domance; that they were barterg for parental re; that they were rencilg after a fight; or (my personal favore) that they were stagg sexual enunters to exce nearby mal, what I’d ll the “you wish, guys” theory of monkey lbianism.

Sodomy laws stayed on the books until 2003, when the Supreme Court led them unnstutnal — aid by an amic brief cg the rearch that had e out the meantime documentg homosexual activy among might have known about the sheer diversy of animal sexualy a long time ago if we, as a culture, had managed to lower our blrs.