Are giraff gay? | Tim Worstall

Contents:

• ARE 90% OF GIRAFF GAY – OR HAVE THEIR LOVG LOOKS BEEN MISUNRSTOOD?
• 5 ANIMAL SPECI THAT ARE TOTALLY GAY
• ARE 90 PER CENT OF GIRAFF GAY? LABOUR MP DAWN BUTLER SPARKED A STORM WH HER CLAIM
• GIRAFF_ARE_GAY
• EXPERTS ARE NOW DIVID AS TO WHETHER OR NOT GIRAFF ARE ACTUALLY GAY
• ARE GIRAFF GAY?
• 11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL
• SENR LABOUR FIGUR REPORTEDLY EMBROILED ROW OVER WHETHER GIRAFF ARE GAY
• HOW COMMON ARE GAY ANIMALS?
• GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD

ARE 90% OF GIRAFF GAY – OR HAVE THEIR LOVG LOOKS BEEN MISUNRSTOOD?

This suggts that there are heterosexual behavrs that rearchers have not disvered; and there may be more s of homosexual relatnships than they observed. Many other animals also have homosexual behavr such as rats, elephants, lns, monkeys and about 20 speci of bats; and homosexual relatnships are more mon mal than femal. When female goats, female sheep, hens and ws appear homosexual behavr, farmers know that this is a sign that they are ready to mate.

Through nature, we n try to analyze the nature of homosexual behavr people, and learn about social and blogil signs that lead to each person's sexual orientatn. Photograph: Buck Forter/Getty ImagShortcutsDawn Butler’s claims regardg animal sexualy have been lled ‘offensive’ and ‘homophobic’ by one of Jeremy Corbyn’s advisers.

“Nety per cent of giraff are gay, ” Dawn Butler, the shadow secretary for women and equali, told a PkNews awards event earlier this month. However, Jeremy Corbyn’s senr domtic policy adviser, Lachlan Stuart, rpond angrily on Twter over what he felt also meant about gay people.

5 ANIMAL SPECI THAT ARE TOTALLY GAY

“It is a ludicro, offensive, homophobic claim, ” Stuart said, sistg stead that the same-sex physil ntact observed between giraff the wild is “not gay behavur” at all, but a display of domance.

“While I totally agree wh Dawn Butler’s ment that we should accept people for who they are, she is rrect her ment that giraff are gay, ” Fennsy says. Regardls of what your sixth gra relign teacher may have said, homosexual activy is natural and the overwhelmg majory of animals are queer. So, why are people still shocked that human begs (who are also members of the animal kgdom) engage homosexual behavr as well?!

ARE 90 PER CENT OF GIRAFF GAY? LABOUR MP DAWN BUTLER SPARKED A STORM WH HER CLAIM

In fact, female and male bonobos engage homosexual behavr to cement social bonds, velop relatnships wh more domant group members and climb the social ladr.

“There’s a whole range of behavrs that f well wh how evolutn happens that now clu homosexual behavr, ” says Marlene Z of the Universy of Mnota Sat Pl.

You probably wouldn't have learned about blogy class, but homosexual behavur is very mon all across the animal kgdom (some zoologists timate that about 1, 500 animal speci are known to display some form of ).

GIRAFF_ARE_GAY

Durg an alarmgly meanrg and sweary after-dner speech for onle LGBT newspaper PkNews earlier this month, Dawn Butler clared that almost all giraff were gayHave you heard the one about the Shadow Secretary for Women and Equali, the top Labour policy wonk and the gay giraff?

EXPERTS ARE NOW DIVID AS TO WHETHER OR NOT GIRAFF ARE ACTUALLY GAY

No, this is not an appropriate joke om the 1970s, but the latt ridiculo row dividg the upper echelons of the beleaguered Labour the one hand is Jeremy Corbyn alyte Dawn Butler who, durg an alarmgly meanrg and sweary after-dner speech for onle LGBT newspaper PkNews earlier this month, clared that almost all giraff were then went on to claim that this fact proved that the ntroversial teachg of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr issu schools uld not turn straight children gay. The most famo gay avian uple were Roy and Silo (pictured), a pair of male chstrap pengus who got together the late Neti at New York's Central Park Zoo and had ey only for each other for seven long years'Is there any tth to this claim? 'It's ak to scribg Deliverance [the 1972 Amerin thriller film] as a 'gay romance' bee the effete cy boys are put their place by the lols by gettg beaten and then raped.

But Dawn and Lachlan are hardly the first people to get steamed up about homosexualy the animal fact, until fairly recently — and spe plenty of evince to the ntrary — was asserted that only humans uld be gay. Which meant that any ostensibly 'homosexual' behavur, such as farm animals tryg to mate wh the same sex, or zoo animals gettg up close and sy, was simply dismissed as a mistake or hormonal nfn. It turns out that there are homosexual animals livg every rner of the pla, every shape and size, om abatross to gay rams, to passnately pk pengus, to fornitg manate.

ARE GIRAFF GAY?

But recently has been accepted that animal sexualy is as plex and varied as our turns out that there are homosexual animals livg every rner of the pla, every shape and size, om abatross to gay rams, to passnately pk pengus, to fornitg female hedgehogs risk all manner of pa to get his 1999 book, Blogil Exuberance: Animal Homosexualy and Natural Diversy, Bce Bagemihl, a gay blogist om the Universy of Wisns the U.

S., sists there are as many gay animals as homosexual claims that homosexual behavur and other sexual practic have been observed more than 1, 500 speci om all over the world as diverse as parrots, lns, lizards, spirs, ogs, badgers, ostrich, em, bighorn sheep, u bats, hors and at least one every 20 pengus.

Dawn (pictured) was makg the age-old nature vs nurture argument, jt not terribly wellHe even disvered same-sex elephants which fondled partners wh their tnks; gay bats whose (upsi down) climax were marked wh a 'squawk'; a pair of 30-ton grey whal swimmg, happily tertwed; and female grizzli who huddled and nuzzled together. (He also claims that, while only one per cent of female giraff show same-sex activy, 94 per cent of male giraff exhib homosexual behavur, cludg neckg, rsg, urtg and mountg — which is prumably, where Dawn got her oh-so-angrily-disputed facts. )Ten years the makg, Bagemihl's rearch ed que a stir when was published, though gave fort to the world's huge gay and lbian muny that homosexualy was not unnatural.

11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL

Sudnly people were noticg homosexual animals everywhere and zoo-keepers and mms dited exhibns to their animals' sexual Zoo held a Gay Sunday 2006 vg high-profile gay celebri cludg Sir Elton John, Dale Wton and Graham Norton to a discsn on the possibily of gay animals. Prumably, bee their spe is so limed, they bee more rourceful when lookg for a Amsterdam's Artis Zoo — where managers once lnched what they lled 'Gayd tours' embracg the animals sexual preferenc — the sex life of their pygmy chimpanze was been likened to 'a permanent gay y' by one spokwoman.

SENR LABOUR FIGUR REPORTEDLY EMBROILED ROW OVER WHETHER GIRAFF ARE GAY

Then there's the bisexual bonobos who are at every 90 the avian world, homosexualy is even more a quarter of black swan fai are parented by same sex upl — the male matg wh the female to produce an egg, which he promptly steals and hatch wh the help of another male. Studi have shown that up to 15 per cent of female wtern gulls some populatns have homosexual tennci, enjoyg urtship ruals such as head tossg, profferg small gifts of refully chosen food, or buildg nts live together like old married upl, such as Carlos and Fernando, a pair of gay flamgos who for years habed at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Tst Slimbridge, Glouctershire, stealg eggs om other upl, hatchg the chicks and feedg them wh k they produced their the most famo gay avian uple were Roy and Silo, a pair of male chstrap pengus who got together the late Neti at New York's Central Park Zoo and had ey only for each other for seven long staff never wnsed them the sexual act, they were forever entwg necks and makg matg lls and, 1999, were found tryg to hatch a rock as if were an, there seems no qutn that all creatur great and small exhib homosexual tennci, but some people still tend to get rather het up about BBC legend Sir David Attenborough, 93, got the neck om an amic om the Universy of East Anglia for 'ignorg gay animals' back 2009 after scribg male chimps huggg as 'iendly affectn'. ? Studi show that homosexualy among giraff mak up over **90 percent** of all observed sexual activy the animals, meang giraff engage much more homosexual matg than they do heterosexual matg’.

And, while the UK llectively groans at the news of a December general electn, the hypothetil gay giraffe has been named “person to watch” polics. Yterday, polil journalist Marie Le Conte stuck her neck out and named “a hypothetil gay giraffe” the “person to watch” her biweekly polics lumn, Polil i-Deology.

HOW COMMON ARE GAY ANIMALS?

First, a brief rep for those not up to their necks the tails of the great gay giraffe row: at the PkNews Awards, Dawn Butler said “90 percent of giraff are gay” while makg a broar pot about not beg able to “teach gayns” and the importance of LGBT+ clive tn schools. Then, a senr Corbyn policy adviser ntted this, llg Butler “homophobic”, tweetg that male giraff have gay sex to assert domance over each other and argug that this is “not gay behavur” (some gays may disagree; PkNews is ntral on this topic, keepg wh our non-partisan valu). Lachlan Stuart also bizarrely claimed that giraff n’t be gay bee there’s “no romance”, addg that giraff are his favoure animal.

Next, a PkNews vtigatn found a Natural History Mm rearcher who – while not actually nfirmg that giraff are gay, said that giraff “like humans, e sex for multiple purpos, which n clu domance” and that they engage both heterosexual and homosexual behavur. Fally, as the gay giraffe was named “person to watch” UK polics and a general electn announced, the rift the world of giraffe sexual behavur experts ed by Labour’s gay giraffe row was addrsed by a Guardian piece.

Giraff fake hump and fight vicly, but are not gay, said Stephanie Fennsy, director of the Giraffe Conservatn Foundatn Namibia. In the absence of beg able to terrogate a giraffe about their sexualy (which is actually the origal pot Butler was makg: “If you n teach gayns, who speaks giraffe?

GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD

This has been observed for many s but leapt to promence a paper 1985 which said that the wrers, who had followed one herd, had wnsed jt one succsful example of heterosexual matg and 14 succsful exampl of homosexual uplg. This rather anecdotal study has the s sce given birth to the rather misleadg Inter meme that “90% of giraff are gay”, a scientifilly qutnable notn, given that the ia of gayns don’t translate easily to animal behavr and suggts an exclive orientatn which is not te. A member of the UK’s Labour party ced the 90% fact as evince that beg gay is somethg that happens nature, only to be attacked by a lleague who said that fact this behavur was a display of domance and aggrsn, rather than sire or affectn.

The ntroversy began when Dawn Butler, Labour’s shadow secretary for women and equali, gave a speech at the Pk News awards fendg the teachg of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr issu schools.