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Yep, nearly every species of animal on God’s green earth engages in “same-sex sexual behavior,” UC Riverside researcher Nathan Bailey reports. In a review published yesterday, Bailey and co-researcher Marlene Zuk found that while homosexual behavior spans the Animal Kingdom, the behavior manifests itself differently across species:
“For example, male fruit flies may court other males because they are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes,” Bailey said. “But that is very different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan Albatross that can remain pair-bonded for life and cooperatively rear young.”
So, fruit flies don’t know they’re gay, bottlenose dolphins are socially gay, the Laysan Albatross are lifelong gays, and human homosexuals are demonized as “unnatural.” These findings probably won’t change the minds of homophobes who delight in comparing homosexuality to bestiality, but it may do something to fight the argument that gay sex somehow defies nature.