Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

For each domesticated species that exhibits homosexual behavior, there are one or more wild “relatives” in which homosexuality has also been observed: Lions and other wild Cats, Wolves and other wild Dogs, Cavies (the wild ancestors of Guinea Pigs), American Bison and other wild Buffalo, Bighorn Sheep and other wild Sheep and Goat species, Zebra and other wild Horses, and so on. In some cases, the same-sex activities observed in domesticated species and their wild ancestors exhibit striking similarities: the group sexual interactions or “huddles” of Goats and Sheep (both wild and domesticated), the frequency of same-sex mounting in domestic Cattle and wild Buffalo, female Cats and Lions placing themselves underneath a female partner to invite mounting, or the same-sex courtship displays by female Turkeys and wild Sage Grouse. In other cases, there are equally striking dissimilarities: pair-bonding and mounting among domesticated boars, for instance, contrasted with the virtual absence of same-sex activity in male wild Pigs; or fairly extensive homosexual courtship activities in female Cheetahs, contrasted with little, if any, such courtship activities in domestic Cats.

Although scientifically verified, homosexuality in pets and other domesticated animals continues to evoke many meanings for the people who simply live or work with such creatures, independent of the “facts.” As with all human observations of the animal world, people tend to see only what they are prepared to accept. This is illustrated quite clearly in two contrasting views of homosexual behavior in farm animals, symbolizing the contradictory interpretations of same-sex activity that are applied to both people and animals. Anita Bryant, in a particularly brilliant turn of logic, once asserted that “even barnyard animals don’t do what homosexuals do.” When informed that barnyard animals and many wild species actually do “stoop” to the level of human homosexuals, she retorted, “That still doesn’t make it right.”⁸⁴ Not surprisingly, noted lesbian author and historian Lillian Faderman offers a markedly different view:

It’s ridiculous for people not to recognize it [homosexuality] in nature. My partner once had a ranch, and I was just fascinated with the way the female animals would often mount other female animals as well as be mounted … . Mammals are simply sexual.⁸⁵

Each of these women has strong opinions about animal homosexuality, and each woman’s viewpoint is informed by her feelings about homosexuality in people. Of the two, however, Lillian Faderman’s perspective is closer to the scientific reality of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. The next chapter explores in more detail the way that people have interpreted animal homosexuality throughout the history of science. Unfortunately, biologists themselves have often espoused views that have more in common with Anita Bryant’s than Lillian Faderman’s.

Chapter 3

Two Hundred Years of Looking at Homosexual Wildlife

1764: … three or four of the young [Bantam] cocks remaining where they could have no communication with hens … each endeavoured to tread his fellow, though none of them seemed willing to be trodden. Reflection on this odd circumstance hinted to me, why the natural appetites, in some of our own species, are diverted into wrong channels.

—GEORGE EDWARDS,

Gleanings of Natural History

1964: Another example of an irreversible sexual abnormality concerns an orang-utan. This ape, a young male, was kept with another young male and they spent a great deal of time playing together. This included some sex play and anal intercourse was observed on a number of occasions.

—DESMOND MORRIS, “The Response of

Animals to a Restricted Environment”

1994: There are several explanations for homosexual behavior in non-human animals. First, it is possible that the pursuers misidentified male 42 as a female because the plumage of after-second-year female Tree Swallows resembles that of males …

—MICHAEL LOMBARDO et al., “Homosexual

Copulations by Male Tree Swallows”¹