The Gay Side of Nature
JRich
April 26, 1999
'The Gay Side of Nature'
Even as moralists and activists continue to debate homosexuality, many
species casually practice it.
By JEFFREY KLUGER
Giraffes do it, goats do it, birds and bonobos and dolphins do it.
Humans beings-a lot of them anyway-like to do it too, but of all the
planets species, they're the only ones who are oppressed when they try.
What humans share with so many other animals, it now appears, is
freewheeling homosexuality. For centuries opponents of gay rights have
seen same-gender sex as a uniquely human phenomenon, one of the many
ways our famously corruptible species flouts the laws of nature. But
nature’s morality, it seems, may be remarkably flexible, at least if the
new book Biological Exuberance (St. Martin's Press), by linguist and
cognitive scientist Bruce Bagemihl, is to be believed. According to
Bagemihl, the animal kingdom is a more sexually complex place than most
people know-one where couplings routinely take place not just between
male-female pairs but also between male-male and female-female ones.
What's more, same-sex partners don't meet merely for brief encounters,
but may form long-term bonds, sometimes mating for years or even for
life.
Bagemihl's ideas have caused a stir in the higher, human community,
especially among scientists who find it simplistic to equate any animal
behavior with human behavior. But Bagemihl stands behind the findings,
arguing that if homosexuality comes naturally to other creatures,
perhaps it's time to quit getting into such a lather over the fact that
it comes naturally to humans too. "Animal sexuality is more complex than
we imagined," says Bagemihl . "That diversity is part of human
heritage."
For a love that long dared not speak its name, animal homosexuality is
astonishingly common. Scouring zoological journals and conducting
extensive interviews with scientists, Bagemihl found same-sex pairings
documented in more than 450 different species. In a world teeming with
more than 1 million species, that may not seem like much. Animals,
however, can be surprisingly prim about when and under whose prying eye
they engage in sexual activity; as few as 2,000 species have thus been
observed closely enough to reveal their full range of coupling behavior.
Within such a small sampling, 450 represents more than 20%.
That 20% may spend its time lustily or quite tenderly. Among bonobos, a
chimp-like ape, homosexual pairings account for as much as 50% of all
sexual activity. Females especially engage in repeated acts of same-sex
sex, spending far more than the 12 or so seconds the whole transaction
can take when a randy male is involved. Male giraffes practice
necking-literally-in a very big way, entwining their long bodies until
both partners become sexually aroused. Heterosexual and homosexual
dolphin pairs engage in face-to-face sexual encounters that took
altogether human. Animals as diverse as elephants and rodents practice
same-sex mounting, and macaques raise that affection ante further, often
kissing while assuming a coital position. Same-gender sexual activity,
says Bagemihl, "encompasses a wide range of forms."
What struck Bagemihl most is those forms that go beyond mere sexual
gratification. Humboldt penguins may have homosexual unions that last
six years; male greylag geese may stay paired for 15 years-a lifetime
commitment when you've got the life span of a goose. Bears and some
other mammals may bring their young into homosexual unions, raising them
with their same-sex partner just as they would with a member of the
opposite sex.
But witnessing same-sex activity and understanding it are two different
things, and some experts believe observers like Bagemihl are misreading
the evidence. In species that lack sophisticated language-which is to
say all species but ours-sex serves many nonsexual purposes, including
establishing alliances and appeasing enemies, all things animals must do
with members of both sexes. "Sexuality helps animals maneuver around
each other before making real contact," says Martin Daly, an
evolutionary psychologist at McMaster University in Ontario. "Putting
all that into a homosexual category seems simplistic."
Even if some animals do engage in homosexual activity purely for
pleasure, their behavior still serves as an incomplete model-and an
incomplete explanation-for human behavior. "In our society homosexuality
means a principal or exclusive orientation," says psychology professor
Frans de Waal of the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta. "Among animals
it’s just nonreproductive sexual behavior."
Whether any of this turns out to be good for the gay and lesbian
community is unclear. While the new findings seem to support the idea
that homosexuality is merely a natural form of sexual expression,
Bagemihl believes such political questions may be beside the point. We
shouldn't have to look to the animal world to see what's normal or
ethical," he says. Indeed, when it comes to answering those questions,
Mother Nature seems to be keeping an open mind.
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