Homosexuality Common in the Wild, Scientists Say

Fox News ^

[Pizonce11]

As gay couples celebrate their newfound right to marry in California and opposition groups rally to fight the ruling, many struggle with this question: Is homosexuality natural?

On this issue, Nature has spoken: Same-sex lovin' is common in hundreds of species, scientists say.

Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo, were a couple for about six years, during which they nurtured a fertilized egg together (given to them by a zookeeper) and raised the young chick that hatched.

According to University of Oslo zoologist Petter Böckman, about 1,500 animal species are known to practice same-sex coupling, including bears, gorillas, flamingos, owls, salmon and many others.

If homosexuality is natural in the animal kingdom, then there is the question of why evolution hasn't eliminated this trait from the gene pool, since it doesn't lead to reproduction.

[Chickensoup]

Yes, that is why they call them animals.

[EagleandLiberty]

So True!!

[21twelve]

Ah - there is a reason why we call them “animals”.

But of course that is lost on the folks that believe that humans are no better than animals - and perhaps worse.

[weegee]

They also mount animals of other species. Bestiality should be legalized as “normal” too?

[peeps36]

I thought man evolved into an advanced life form that knew the difference between right and wrong. Animals don’t think the same way we do. What we might call gay behavior, an animal might call asserting dominance over a rival.

[EagleandLiberty]

I fear I may be Homer sexual.

LOL, Homersexual...

[weegee]

The scientists don’t want to accept a concept of CIVILIZED behavior. Bet they are on the side of “negotiating” with enemies rather than defending territory or even expanding the range. War is “natural” too.

[weegee]

The sex positive agenda seeks to end ALL moral judgements over ALL sexual pairings regardless of sex, age, marital status, relation, number, or species of partner(s).

[Varda]

“same-sex coupling”

Every time I’ve looked into one of these claims I find a homosexual who is trying to pretend his behavior is “natural”. Not once have I found that any animals that have a common behavior of attempting to form a mating pair bond (reproductive behavior) with a member of their own sex. I CALL BS.

[derllak]

Really? Seriously? I think those Aussies spend way too much time in the outbacks. Yuck. :P

[pissant]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1906799/I-did-sniff-colleague’s-chair,-admits-politician.html

[B4Ranch]

I like that idea even though I refuse to be an observer of their deviant behavior.

[ConservaTexan]

Same-sex lovin' is common in hundreds of species, scientists say.

Maybe, but in the wild they are not allowed to adopt so they pass on their lifestyle to the young of the species.

[The Great RJ]

Homosexuality can’t be all that common or there wouldn’t be any continuation of the species.

[SampleMan]

Any Darwinians want to explain “natural homosexuality”?

[hinckley buzzard]

One has to ask after the viability of a culture which seeks to justify the acceptibility of aberrant and empirically deviant behavior, on the grounds that its performance has been observed among wild beasts.

[FlingWingFlyer]

This is really a dumbass argument for the homosexuals to use in their attempts to find some sort of legitimacy in their lifestyle.

[Marie2]

Nurturing an egg or whatever is not the same as sexual gratification.

Homosexuality should involve sexual gratification, shouldn’t it? Or am I missing something.

[Yogafist]

The homosexuality gene is random and has something to do with softball.

[UndauntedR]

Any Darwinians want to explain “natural homosexuality”?

When a significant portion of your ability to reproduce is determined by your position and function within a complex social order, really weird social and physical characteristics can be selected for.

A simple example is the peacock - sexual selection favors longer, brighter tails, while predation selects against longer, brighter tails.

This is consistent with seeing homosexual behaviors primarily in highly social animals. It will change between every species and social order... but I recall a primate study where they documented homosexual relationships in males. What would happen is that two males would engage in homosexual activity, including courtship and sex, and become very strong protectors of one another. In some cases, one of the males would challenge the leadership of the group and it was almost always necessary for him to be backed up by his partner. The leadership position then yields him and his #2 the best and choice access to all the females of the tribe. Hence, it's feasible this kind of behavior could have a selective advantage in that social structure.

You can find alot more case studies and references here.

Given the prevalence of homosexuality in other ape species, its suggestive that it may be more genetic than a lot of people here would like to admit. I took a look at a bunch of twin studies and kept seeing data that looked like:

General Population: 1-3%
Concordance of Siblings: 10%
Concordance of Fraternal Twins: 10-20%
Concordance of Identical Twins: 30-50%

which means you're 20 times more likely to gay if your identical twin is. This translates into homosexuality being something like 45-65% genetic. How or why is an entirely different question which is undoubtedly some very subtle aspect of our ancestral social structure... not unlike the other ape case studies.