Baaa, sweetie...

[brightlotusmoon]

Yes, even animals can be gay. So, get over yourselves, homophobics. It's more natural than you think, and certainly beneficial.
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/06/the_gay_animal_kingdom.php

Comments

ah

[officeninja.livejournal.com]

don't be gay sparky, don't be gay

Re: ah

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

*falls over laughing*
Wow, I had actually forgotten about that.

[fadingmemories.livejournal.com]

Fasinating article. There's also been studies that have found that animals are prone to turning to homosexuality when their species becomes over populated. A gay friend of mine happily calls himself population control.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

A few of my gay friends call themselves that, too. :)
And I think it really is because humans are becoming overpopulated, in a sense...

[fadingmemories.livejournal.com]

Yeah. A lot of people claim that most women are at least bicurious sometime in their life. Women are probably more open to it because it's not looked down upon as much. I personally love women as much as your next red blooded male. Its just a different kind of sex, that's all.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear. It's not even bicurious, although it technically is... I just love love love women's bodies. Our skin is so soft! Always so soft! Damn!

[fyremoon.livejournal.com]

Most animals are beyond gay thinking, they are multispecies as well as bisexual. Give a rabbit the chance and it will have sex with a hare or a guinea pig, or anything else that doesn't run away!

Most animals cannot masturbate so they release their pentup sexual urges on each other, whether by violence or sexual acts.

[amarnagrape.livejournal.com]

Interesting article, but I still find it hard to believe. I can't get myself to believe that animals are even capable of that sort of specific desire. I always thought that anything construed as sexual activity among animals was usually just mating or expresing dominance or solidarity. Different species have different ways of doing all those things, I'm sure.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

It could be a dominance thing, yes
Or animals could just be kinky. There was a story in Norway about two male ducks, one that was chasing the other, until the first one crashed, died, and fell to the ground, and the second one found it and raped it. Male ducks, mind you.

[todabrilla.livejournal.com]

I agree with several ideas in the article. I do find three aspects annoying though.

One is that I think the research is largely rallying against a strawman and this moves it too far in the other direction. You can certainly argue that homosexuality is common without it having to be adaptive. More to the point, she kind of sidelines heterosexual behavior. The important message I would stress is that the real truth is far more messy and complex then either extreme.

Second, sexual selection is definitely an important force in evolution. Darwin did not argue that it explained all sex differences. But it's foolhardy in the extreme to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Add to the idea, but unless you have evidence that sexual selection does not occur then don't say it's not real.

Thirdly I find it a little odd how much she pushes the discrimination button. Biologists are a diverse lot, but they do tend to be liberal and all evolutionary biologists I have ever met support for GLBT issues. Saying, that people don't accept my views because I'm transgendered is a blanket statement I cannot agree with. Even if most scientists were homophobes that wouldn't mean they'd necessarily adopt a conspiracy against her hypotheses.

All in all, I am grateful to her for keeping the orthodoxy on their toes and pushing new ideas. I just think alternatives are painted a little too black-and-white.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

*thinks*
*reads article again*

You are absolutely right.

It is a tad extreme, isn't it?

[todabrilla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but like I said there are several very reasonable ideas in there not to mention the value of a different point of view.

I just wish people didn't feel they need to polarize debates to make their point. It's worrisome in politics and just as much so in science.