Contents:
- WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
- LBIAN ALBATROSS AND GAY GIRAFF? THE SCIENCE ON SAME-SEX SEXUALY ANIMALS
- IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS
- CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?
- GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD
- HOW COMMON ARE GAY ANIMALS?
- GAY DUCKS RAIL REPOPULATN PLAN
WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
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.
LBIAN ALBATROSS AND GAY GIRAFF? THE SCIENCE ON SAME-SEX SEXUALY ANIMALS
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.
IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS
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.
CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?
"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. However, scientific quiry to such behavrs didn’t happen until relatively recently due to historilly pervasive, negative attus towards homosexualy humans.
New work by evolutnary blogists suggts that perhaps, bld by historil homophobia, we have been askg the wrong qutn all along. In the past, was thought that female maqu engage homosexual relatnships this way only when suable mal are not prent.
GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD
In other words, rearchers assumed that homosexual behavr only happens when animals are isolated om members of the oppose sex.
Therefore, acrdg to experts, many female Japane maqu nnot be nsired eher preferentially homo- or heterosexual. On the other hand, bee female maqu will reproduce wh mal throughout their lifetime regardls of their tert homosexual behavr, the end the relatnships do not acce any st to lifetime reproductn. But new rearch shows that even the direct benefs are not required for the persistence of homosexual behavr 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. In 1994, the Gay Birrs’ Club was found the UK, and a year later, a siar group, lled GAGGLE, was tablished Atlanta, Geia.
HOW COMMON ARE GAY ANIMALS?
Around that time, Jennifer Rycenga, who’s now a profsor of relig studi at San Jose State Universy, was searchg for a gay-leang birdg group San Francis. Today, some two s after the first gay-birdg groups formed, outdoor spac are signifintly more diverse, acceptg, and safe.
" 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.
GAY DUCKS RAIL REPOPULATN PLAN
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. 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.
“This lony is lerally the largt proportn of — I don’t know what the rrect term is: ‘homosexual animals’?
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.