Saturday, December 1, 2007

Gay Animal Pride

(Artist credit: Christian Lassen)

About 40 parents in Allentown, PA signed a petition to have a certain children's book banned from their local library. Apparently one parent picked up a bunch of books at the library and later, as she was reading the book to her child and came to the end of reading "King & King," she stated she "was sick" when the book concluded with two men marrying one another and kissing.

There's a lot I could say on this subject, but I'll try to restrain myself ;-)


First of all, as a parent, you are responsible for what your children read. And if you picked out the books yourself, you have no one to blame but yourself.


Second of all, homosexuality, whether you like it or not, agree with it or not, has been a part of the human (and non-human) species since the dawn of mankind.


Third, if you are against PDA (public displays of affection) in books, then why not say the same about "straight" couples? IMO, it's hypocritical otherwise.


Fourth, to not teach your children that diversity exists is to not only do them a great disservice, but yourselves as well. You probably don't even realize that maybe your next door neighbor is gay, or your favorite postal carrier is a lesbian, or your local politician is too.


Does it really matter?


I applaud the library for not bowing down to the pressures of these few parents who signed that petition to have that book thrown out. It's not the library's responsibility to do what you believe is "good and moral parenting."


Stamping out a young person's natural sexuality only makes things worse down the road. It causes psychological, emotional, and physiological damage.

To teach our children that they can only be what we think is the right way, is to not respect or accept them as they are.
We all have the right to find our own way and to figure out what we feel is right and natural for us individually. Imagine how much better this world would be if this was taught and accepted.

Speaking of homosexuality in human and non-human species, did you know that anywhere from 9-40%, depending on the animal, is either gay or bisexual?

You can check out some of that at
Top 10 Gay Animals

In another article, Gay Animals Out of the Closet, it's been documented that over 1,500 species are gay or have engaged in this behavior. In some species, being gay is more prominent that being straight.

Here's a funny post about
Gay Dolphins. There's a video too but I could not get it to work so I can't say what it's about.

I had to laugh out loud at what this author wrote though:
So now I'm sure the argument by homophobes will switch. At first it was, "Well, Animals don't engage in homosexuality. It's not natural to be gay" And now it will be, "Well, we don't want to act like animals. Especially perverted Dolphins."
Labeling sexuality doesn't exist among our wildlife. It just is. It's us short-sighted, egoistical humans with the need to put a label on everything that defines just not only who we are, but also reinforces what a narrow view a number of people have on life and humanity. Us humans could really learn some invaluable lessons from our non-human friends about life, love, and pleasure.

Two excerpts:
Like most complex issues, animal homosexuality is challenging and poorly understood. Therefore, educators tend to shy away from covering it in their teaching. Many scientists don't even want to be associated with this type of research.
And
The argument that a homosexual way of living cannot be accepted because it is against the "laws of nature" can now be rejected scientifically, said Geir Soli, project leader for the exhibition.
Another article discussing Darwin's research on sexual selection, said this:
My discipline teaches that homosexuality is some sort of anomaly. But if the purpose of sexual contact is just reproduction, as Darwin believed, then why do all these gay people exist? A lot of biologists assume that they are somehow defective, that some developmental error or environmental influence has misdirected their sexual orientation. If so, gay and lesbian people are a mistake that should have been corrected a long time ago. But this hasn't happened. That's when I had my epiphany. When scientific theory says something's wrong with so many people, perhaps the theory is wrong, not the people."
You can read more here: The Gay Animal Kingdom

The sooner our children grow up knowing and accepting that diversity is what makes our world not only richer, but perfectly natural, the healthier and happier we'll all be.


Mahalo,


Dolphin

2 comments:

  1. Kudos to you Dolphin for a wonderful article. Wouldn't it be an awesome world if people would spend more time celebrating diversity, broadening their minds and education and focusing on self improvement rather than judging others (which by the way according to the bible is not our domain in the first place). Thank you for your refreshing and enlightened article.

    gemqueen

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  2. Hi Gemqueen!

    Thank you :-) It means a lot you stopped by here to share your thoughts ...


    Dolphin

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