Gay animals | Psychology Today

Contents:

• 5 ANIMAL SPECI THAT ARE TOTALLY GAY
• CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
• 11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL
• GAY ANIMALS

5 ANIMAL SPECI THAT ARE TOTALLY GAY

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.

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. 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.

CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?

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. 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.

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.

11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL

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. However, scientific quiry to such behavrs didn’t happen until relatively recently due to historilly pervasive, negative attus towards homosexualy humans. 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.

Zoologists are disverg that homosexual and bisexual activy is not unknown wh the animal kgdom.Roy and Silo, two male chstrap pengus at New York's Central Park Zoo have been separable for six years now.

GAY ANIMALS

There are male ostrich that only urt their own genr, and pairs of male flamgos that mate, build nts, and even raise foster chicks.Filmmakers recently went search of homosexual wild animals as part of a Natnal Geographic Ultimate Explorer documentary about the female's role the matg game. ET, 5 p.m PT on MSNBC TV.)The team ught female Japane maqu engaged timate acts which, if observed humans, would be the X-rated tegory."The homosexual behavr that go on is pletely bafflg and trigug," says Natnal Geographic Ultimate Explorer rrponnt, Mireya Mayor.

"You would have thought femal that want to be mated, pecially over their fertile perd, would be seekg out mal."Well, perhaps, a roundabout way, they are seekg mal, suggts primatologist Amy Parish.She argu that female maqu may enhance their social posn through homosexual timacy which turn fluenc breedg succs.

The fact that homosexualy do, after all, exist the natural world is bound to be ed agast people who sist such behavr is unnatural.In the U.S., particular, the moral bate over this issue rag on. And only this month, Print Bh vowed to ntue his bid to ban gay marriag after the Senate blocked the proposal.Already, s of animal homosexualy have been ced succsful urt s brought agast stat like Texas, where gay sex was, until recently, illegal.Yet scientists say we should be wary of referrg to animals when nsirg what's acceptable human society. For stance, fantici, as practiced by lns and many other animals, isn't somethg people, gay or straight, generally approve of humans.Human HomosexualySo how far n we go g animals to help unrstand human homosexualy?