Whatever Happened to: the gay pengus - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• WHAT’S WH ALL THE GAY PENGUS?
• A GAY PENGU UPLE ADOPTED AN EGG A BERL ZOO
• 'GAY' PENGU COUPLE HAD NO EGG OF THEIR OWN. SO THEY STOLE ONE.
• ARE PENGUS GAY? NO, THEY’RE JT LONELY
• ‘GAY PENGUS’ BOOK STIRS NTROVERSY, IGNOR FULL STORY
• TANGO AND SILO, THE GAY PENGUS OM ‘AND TANGO MAK THREE,’ ARE OFFICIALLY EX-GAY
• FLAP OVER A TALE OF GAY PENGUS
• ROY & SILO – GAY PENGUS, NO I’M SER, THEY’RE GAY
• GAY PENGUS PROVE THAT LOVE IS WNG
• WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: THE GAY PENGUS
• GAY PENGUS RAISE NEWLY HATCHED CHICK AT NEW YORK ZOO
• GAY PENGUS 'KIDNAP' CHICK OM STRAIGHT PARENTS AT DENMARK ZOO
• CAN PENGUS BE GAY? [ALL QUTNS ANSWERED]
• GAY PENGUS BREAK UP
• ROY AND SILO ~ GAY PENGUS

WHAT’S WH ALL THE GAY PENGUS?

The list of gay pengu upl go on and on and spans a wi range of speci. In the Netherlands, a gay Ain pengu uple recently stole an egg om a lbian pengu uple. That means ’s difficult to tell male and female pengus apart and even more difficult to intify any wild matg pairs as homosexual.

Gay pengu uple adopt egg together. After uls attempts to hatch ston and fish, a gay pengu uple at a German zoo may fally be able to parent a chick of their own. Jäger said the zoo’s seen plenty of same-sex pengu upl, and now, Skipper and Pg might jo a storied lp of gay pengu parents.

A GAY PENGU UPLE ADOPTED AN EGG A BERL ZOO

In June, the ZSL London Zoo celebrated longtime lovers Ronnie and Reggie wh a banner that read, “Some pengus are gay. Gay uplg certaly isn’t limed to pengus. Standg si by si at the Berl Zoo wh their flippers touchg, they take turns refully ntlg an egg between their feet the hope that will eventually hatch the chick they have both long the two 10-year-olds are both male — and the latt a long succsn of same-sex pengus that have upled up to adopt an zoos London, Atralia and New York, male and female pengus have for years entered same-sex relatnships to cubate eggs to chicks, lightg zookeepers and some visors while stirrg anger and revulsn has bee the latt cy to host a pair of “gay” pengus after Skipper and Pg showed an attractn to each other and a sire to bee parents.

Rashed, who is gay, me to Germany four years ago and found a haven. Germany has one of the world’s hight acceptance rat for homosexualy, and legalized same-sex marriage and granted full adoptn rights 2017. The German far right, however, has been acced of stirrg homophobia recent nursery-school teacher Hannelore Ber said she first heard about the same-sex pengu uple on TV.

'GAY' PENGU COUPLE HAD NO EGG OF THEIR OWN. SO THEY STOLE ONE.

“An animal follows s stcts and s feelgs — jt like humans, too, ” Ber Berl Zoo officials said their pengu uple had so far spired only posive reactns om visors, siar stanc — and even lerature about — have recent years sparked fierce backlash, ernmental bans and relig protts around the forcefulns of that backlash has bee a way to measure “where we are at any one lotn terms of the acceptance of gay rights, ” said psychiatrist Jt Richardson, -thor of a children’s book that tells the te story of same-sex pengus adoptg an egg at New York’s Central Park Zoo two chstrap pengus — Silo and Roy — were able to succsfully hatch their adopted baby pengu, Tango. “There have been so many challeng to the book around the world — is sometim hard to keep up wh , ” Richardson said a telephone their charmg waddle and tenncy to rema monogamo relatnships, pengus appear to have ronated wh both supporters and opponents of gay rights unlike any other of the more than 450 animal speci that have been observed to show homosexual behavr. Richardson said the backlash to his work is bee this behavr among pengus reaffirms that homosexualy is ed natural and not, as some opponents argue, an unnatural choice.

ARE PENGUS GAY? NO, THEY’RE JT LONELY

”Blogists have been more ut about drawg lks between homosexual behavr of animals and humans, sayg that occurrenc of same-sex uplg or matg ruals are rare the animal world and that there is not enough data to say whether members of certa speci, cludg pengus, n be gay.

‘GAY PENGUS’ BOOK STIRS NTROVERSY, IGNOR FULL STORY

Most likely, animals sometim lled gay public disurse are, fact, bisexual, rearchers say. Meanwhile Poland, the untry’s first openly gay mayor, Robert Biedron, faced right-wg nmnatns for actively promotg the book 2009, as the untry’s LGBT muny was beg more vol.

TANGO AND SILO, THE GAY PENGUS OM ‘AND TANGO MAK THREE,’ ARE OFFICIALLY EX-GAY

Related: 'Gay' Animals: 10 Alternative Liftyl the WildSome chicks the zoo's pengu brood have already hatched, and animal regivers are keepg a close eye on the male uple, who are takg turns warmg their ill-gotten egg, DutchNews reported.

FLAP OVER A TALE OF GAY PENGUS

Pengus aren't the only birds that form homosexual relatnships. More than 130 birds speci are known for homosexual behavr, which n clu plex urtship ruals, genal ntact and even ntg together for years, Live Science prevly reported. Stori of homosexual behavr among pengus are well-documented and well-loved.

ROY & SILO – GAY PENGUS, NO I’M SER, THEY’RE GAY

For a while, Roy and Silo, a pair of male Chstrap pengus New York Zoo, were the world’s most famo gay uple, buildg a nt together and even hatchg and rearg abandoned chick named Tango. (Read about Harry and Pepper, the San Francis Zoo’s Gay Pengus. Stephen Dobson, one of the thors of the study published the journal Ethology, said that when he observed the lony over time he found that all the “gay” pengus chose a heterosexual partner eventually and that female pairs would also “spl up” to raise an egg wh a male partner.

It has "rocked the gay scene, " as the popular blogger Andrew Sullivan, who is gay, wrote The Sunday Tim of London this one was more disappoted than Rob Gramzay, the senr pengu keeper at the zoo, who said simply an terview yterday, "They seemed to be a good pair together. "People read so much to the gay thg, and the gay thg is necsarily a human nstrat that's put on top of them.

Dobson, who has lled homosexualy a disorr and advot nvertg gays, a mentator, Warren Throckmorten, wrote: "For those who have poted to Roy and Silo as mols for all, the velopments mt be disappotg. Some gay activists might actually be angry.

GAY PENGUS PROVE THAT LOVE IS WNG

As Roberta Sklar, a spokwoman for the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, put : "There's almost an obssn wh qutns such as, 'Is sexual orientatn a birthright or a choice? The surprise h of the summer was "March of the Pengus, " part bee was embraced by Christians and nservativ, who see the film pro-fay and Christian Febary, followg protts by gay rights groups, a German zoo abandoned plans to force homosexual pengus there to pair wh femal.

"Exclive homosexualy is not very mon nature, " he said.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: THE GAY PENGUS

And, anyway, he said, "bisexual" would be a better term for animals, addg, "They're sometim scribed as gay animals, but they really aren't. Like women a nunnery or men on a big Navy ship, there's homosexualy those s.

GAY PENGUS RAISE NEWLY HATCHED CHICK AT NEW YORK ZOO

It's no more an argument favor of human gay relatnships than is a ll for children to swallow their fish whole or sleep on rocks. CHICAGO (BP)–A children’s book based on a te story about two “gay pengus” is g ncern om parents several schools and towns natnwi, and th far the ntroversy largely has ignored an important fact — the pengus long ago spl up, wh one of them gog on to nt wh the oppose sex. “Of urse, we know the kids eventually are gog to learn about the homosexual liftyle, ” she said.

The book was published before the two pengus Throckmorton, associate profsor of psychology at Grove Cy College Pennsylvania, joked that Silo was the “world’s first ex-gay pengu. ”“At tim gay activists will e the animal kgdom to support the lk between naturalism and human sexualy, and yet when Silo … took up wh a female pengu, the gay activists were downplayg the importance of that, ” Throckmorton told Baptist Prs.

GAY PENGUS 'KIDNAP' CHICK OM STRAIGHT PARENTS AT DENMARK ZOO

”Several years ago, when the news about Roy and Silo’s “gay relatnship broke, ” liberal activists quickly poted to as a supportg argument for “gay marriage” the human world.

“Ined, if homosexual marriag exist the animal kgdom, they mt be normal. ”But Throckmorton said neher si of the “gay marriage” bate should “read too much to” the relatnship between Roy and Silo — whether the two pengus are together or apart.

” –30– For rmatn about the natnal bate over “gay marriage, ” vis. Silo and Roy are, to anthropomorphize a b, gay pengus.

CAN PENGUS BE GAY? [ALL QUTNS ANSWERED]

Ined, scientists have found homosexual behavr throughout the animal growg body of science has been creasgly drawn to charged bat about homosexualy Amerin society, on subjects om gay marriage to sodomy laws, spe reluctance om experts the field to extrapolate om animals to humans. Gay groups argue that if homosexual behavr occurs animals, is natural, and therefore the rights of homosexuals should be protected.

''But if homosexualy occurs among animals, do that necsarily mean that is natural for humans, too?

GAY PENGUS BREAK UP

And that rais a faiar qutn: if homosexualy is not a choice, but a rult of natural forc that nnot be ntrolled, n be immoral? The open discsn of homosexual behavr animals is relatively new.

Female bonobos have been observed to engage homosexual activy almost his own book, ''Amerin scientists who vtigated bonobos never discsed sex at all, '' said Mr.

' ''Then 1999, Bce Bagemihl published ''Blogil Exuberance: Animal Homosexualy and Natural Diversy'' (St.

ROY AND SILO ~ GAY PENGUS

Bagemihl said homosexual behavr had been documented some 450 speci. (Homosexualy, he says, refers to any of the behavrs between members of the same sex: long-term bondg, sexual ntact, urtship displays or the rearg of young. ''Sexual Exuberance'' was also ced 2000 by gay rights groups opposed to Ballot Measure 9, a proposed Oregon statute prohibg teachg about homosexualy or bisexualy public schools.

Bagemihl scrib homosexual activy a broad spectm of animals. He asserts that while same-sex behavr is sometim found ptivy, is actually seen more equently studi of animals the birds, for stance, studi show that 10 to 15 percent of female wtern gulls some populatns the wild are homosexual. Their bonds, too, may persist for mammals, male and female bottlenose dolphs equently engage homosexual activy, both ptivy and the wild.

Homosexualy is particularly mon among young male dolph lv. Rearchers have noted that some s same-sex behavr is more mon for dolphs and female rh maqu, a type of monkey, also exhib homosexualy ptivy and the wild. Vasey, a profsor of psychology and nroscience at the Universy of Lethbridge Canada, who studi homosexual behavr Japane maqu, is edg a new book on homosexual behavr animals, to be published by Cambridge Universy Prs.