The sexual biology of supper

I eat cow for food, whether she be lesbian or straight. I can't tell which she was, and it wouldn't matter even if she did come with a sticker identifying her sexual orientation.

Nonetheless, the sex acts of animals matter a great deal. Although I can, as yet, find nothing on the 'net about the queer steer, today's surfing reveals a round-up of gay and lesbian critters. "Researchers at Oregon State University have found that about eight percent of rams are gay." And: "The news comes as Boston Parks officials disclosed that Romeo and Juliet, the famed pair of white swans in the Pubic Garden, are really two females." (Left unmentioned in that story is that park officials dithered over whether to reveal the swans' homosexuality -- a different issue, tho'.)

The tuxedo-clad bird is also in the public eye. "Zoos in three countries have gay penguins. There are three gay couples at the Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany. There are about 20 same-sex pairs at 16 major aquariums and zoos in Japan. But, two gay penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York broke up last year.

"Roy and Silo had been together for several years. They even put a rock simulating an egg in their nest and sat on it, keeping it warm in the folds of their abdomens. After they broke up, Roy for a while spent time with a female penguin but that did not last long...."

With baby steps, scientists all over the world are bringing up the possibility that homosexuality is based in our genes. "In rams who prefer to mount other rams," for example, "the anterior preoptic area of the hypothalamus was about half the size of this part of the brain in heterosexual rams, the researchers say in a new report." Whatever the heck the anterior preoptic is.

Human studies exist out there, too. Enough to make researchers want to keep X-raying and, post-mortem, gouging out chunks of our brains in order to pop them onto a scale. Ooooo! Two-point-oh-oh-oh-three ounces!

A cohort of activists are pleased as punch, arguing that human rights cannot logically be denied to those whom nature made that way. But by that argument, it's actually fine to discriminate against people based on their political beliefs or religion, since those lifestyles are based on choice -- and choice is not a good enough reason for societal protections to be offered.

So I do wish the "nature" people would shut up. Humans have spent thousands of years differentiating ourselves from the animals. Must I validate my behaviour by saying I'm basing it on that of a fruit fly, or of a dog? Does sleeping 15 hours a day, as do my beloved cats, make it okay? How can imitating a sheep really help me and mine?

I hope that sexuality is chosen. That each of us can make different choices at different times in our lives, that no human being is fully programmed from birth till death. That rights are accorded based on more than physical "disability" (though there's nothing wrong with using physical criteria -- such as banning discrimination based on skin colour).

For some, choice is pie in the sky --or ex-gays wouldn't have such a hard time going straight. Though I'll push forward a cultural argument every time.

This doesn't mean that I want to shut down science. We need to understand animals and their behaviour. Just as we need to understand ourselves. I just hope -- please please please -- that we're transcending our biology.

And I'll have that steak medium rare.