Why It's OK for Birds to Be Gay | Live Science

Contents:

• IS THIS SHARK GAY?
• GAY SHARKS
• ANDY COHEN REVEALS ANRSON COOPER AS 'GAY SHARK' IN BRAVOCON SURPRISE
• CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
• WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
• WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?

IS THIS SHARK GAY?

That’s the only way I n expla a wrg assignment that clud the stctns: “I need you to go to a movie and fd out whether the shark is gay.

A gay shark don’t make any sense-unls ’s a movie for children. Ramon Johnson, wrg for Gay Life on, says the movie “sends a msage of hope to closeted gay men who live their liv feelg different and out of touch. Johnson go on, “The siari between Lenny and some gay men is even more apparent when he cross-drs as a dolph.

GAY SHARKS

While there are some classic them we all agree on (“Do what is right”), there are others we don’t (“Gay is OK”). Rachael Stt, reviewg for the web magaze, prais the movie for beg possibly “the first animated film to portray a ‘gay’ character.

” Lenny is “a vegetarian-a clear phemism for beg gay. ” Pl Clton, reviewg for, agre that “Lenny’s ‘otherns’ uld very easily be read as beg gay” and “his overall meanor is as subtle as a rabow flag at a Republin nventn. Lenny is more giddy than gay.

ANDY COHEN REVEALS ANRSON COOPER AS 'GAY SHARK' IN BRAVOCON SURPRISE

If their tentn was to munite a pro-gay msage to children, they failed; not many reviewers got , eher. But to Ed Vagliano of the Amerin Fay Associatn Journal, this wasn’t a double-entendre pched at grownups, but a sneaky attempt to teach children acceptance of homosexualy. “The way Vagliano se , any rtoon shark that don’t eat meat is clearly HOMOSEXUAL.

The fdg suggts that homosexual behavr n enhance a male’s abily to pass on his gen by attractg femal that wouldn’t be terted him otherwise. Molli aren’t the only fish that exhib homosexual behavr.

CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?

Reference: “Homosexual behavur creas male attractivens to femal” by David Bierbach, Christian T. The qutn of whether animals n be gay is one that has long fascated and ed nsternatn to scientists and laypeople alike.

WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY

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.

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.

WHY ARE THERE GAY MEN?

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. "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.