Greylag Geese, and combatting queerphobia...

[emilykate]

On the microwave in the Women's Room is a sticker with the following handwritten quote from The Australian:

"Same-sex greylag geese couples have been known to raise chicks together in life-long unions."

This was 'added' to the microwave following a GirlZone discussion group (these discussion sessions on issues faced by queer women take place weekly in the Women's Room and are open to all women, regardless of sexual orientation and identity) specifically looking at how we can peacefully and effectively 'deal with' and inform those people who express queerphobic attitudes. After talking about the falsehood that there is anything 'unnatural' about non-heterosexual relationships, conversation turned to this recent article from The Australian, which I now include here, so that you may read it in full.

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au/news/gay-pride-swells-after-science-admits-animals-can-be-queer-as-folk/story-e6frg8l6-1225837306777

Gay pride swells after science admits animals can be queer as folk

Emma Tom from The Australian
March 06, 2010 12:00AM

MALE ostriches bat for both teams. When they woo females, they perform a raunchy dance designed to show off the length and health of their feathers. When courting other males, they perform the same flamboyant hustle but with a special pirouette that's only ever been observed in boy-on-boy ostrich action.

"One of the most common arguments meant to convince us of the unnatural nature of homosexuality is that even when it does occur in nature, it is a case of coincidence, mistaken identity or aberrant behaviour," Taronga Zoo's manager of research and conservation told hundreds of rapt diners in the zoo's ballroom on Wednesday night. "[The male ostrich pirouette] indicates that these males haven't been mistaken for females but targeted specifically."

Rebecca Spindler, whose observations were greeted with wild woo-hoos of approval, was addressing a fundraising dinner for the same-sex marriage campaign group Australian Marriage Equality. In a speech providing a genetic and evolutionary take on gay relationships (apparently it's all about the major histocompatibility complex), she told guests at the $230-a-head Mardi Gras event that:


* Homosexual behaviour in giraffes is thought to be more prevalent than heterosexual behaviour;

* Same-sex greylag geese couples have been known to raise chicks together in life-long unions.

* Same-sex spotted dolphin pairs stimulate each other using sonar in a move Flipper-ologists have nicknamed genital buzzing.

Until the late 90s, researchers who encountered same-sex steaminess in the animal kingdom tended to ignore, downplay or frame it as non-sexual.

Petter Bockman was the scientific adviser to Norway's notorious 2007 Against Nature? museum exhibition featuring homoerotic swans and gay whale phallus fencing. He says researchers have customarily described same-sex animal activity as "competition, a form of greeting, ritualised combat, things like that, even when we are talking full anal intercourse with ejaculation".

Now, however, homosexual behaviour is recognised in more than 1500 species, including hyenas, cheetahs, bison, bears, sea otters, kangaroos, hedgehogs, scarab beetles, vampire bats and, last but obviously by no means least, bighorn sheep.

Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, became international media stars when their keeper revealed they were raising a chick after previously trying to incubate a rock.

News that animals can be as queer as folk has -- understandably -- been seized on by activists as indisputable proof that homosexuality is as "natural" a human state as heterosexuality.

But while such studies are an essential counter to the homophobic observer bias previously found in that alleged bastion of objectivity known as science, extrapolating from animal to human behaviour is precarious.

Giant pandas in mating programs, for instance, are responding well to watching steamy films of other pandas playing hide the bamboo shoot. Is this a ringing sociobiological endorsement of pornography?

Female bonobo apes engage in sapphic sex almost hourly. Does this mean the human union movement should agitate for routine workplace lesbo breaks?

And, when not humping the living daylights out of other chaps, male giraffes swill females' urine to detect fertility. Should the manufacturers of human contraceptive products be worried?

No, fascinating and thought-provoking as they may be, animal sexual habits are like Rorschach inkblot tests: squint hard enough and you'll see whatever you want.

The argument that natural occurrences automatically have moral worth is also suss. Rape, infanticide, snuff sex and necrophilia are all common in the animal kingdom yet no one's agitating for more humans to hop into these unattractive practices.

In truth, biological determinism can't be used to determine anything except that animals and humans are biologically exuberant and highly resistant to sexual pigeon-holing.

The strongest argument in favour of same-sex marriage is actually ostrich free: it's that a significant portion of the population really wants it for really good reasons, and the case against simply doesn't stack up.

Wednesday's dinner was full of long-term, same-sex partnerships; full of loving, committed people (often with kids) who just want equal access to an institution that -- for all its faults -- remains the zenith of Western coupledom.

"Twelve years ago, when I married Jackie in New York city, we were making a very personal statement of love and commitment to each other," former Australian Medical Association president Kerryn Phelps said of her wedding to former school teacher Jackie Stricker. "What had started out as a private and intimate ceremony soon became the subject of talkback radio discussion, newspaper opinion pieces, dinner party conversations, television documentaries and current affairs stories . . . we felt shocked, violated, overwhelmed. As a citizen of this country, I really should not have to be here arguing for the basic right to have my relationship acknowledged and respected by the laws of the land."

In Australia, homosexual hitching remains illegal because Labor and the Coalition are bipartisan curious on the issue. On February 25, a Marriage Equality Bill introduced by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was defeated 45 votes to five. This was despite polls showing that most Australians support the right of gays and lesbians to say "I do" in some form, making anti-gay marriage moral conservatives the recalcitrant minority in this picture.

Hypocrisy is also a huge issue given that holy matrimony's much vaunted sanctity and solemnity is routinely flouted by heterosexuals in forms ranging from tacky accoutrements (consider the high-heeled bridal sneaker) to infidelity (currently estimated to affect about 41 per cent of marriages if emotional unfaithfulness is also included).

And, given present divorce rates, what are we to make of the federal government's recently tweaked definition of marriage as "the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others for life"? At best, it's wishful thinking. At worst, it's fraud.

Rather than devaluing conventional conjugation, the fact that gays and lesbians are fighting so very hard for access suggests they may be less likely to take the institution for granted and, ironically, be more likely to uphold its old-school values.

[e-mail]

I think it's unfortunate that the author immediately shies away from taking the information presented as a clear-cut sign that yes, it's all natural, instead saying that this doesn't necessarily apply to humans and that this poses no lesson in morality. Yes, I recognise that rape does occur outside of humanity as well; however, I strongly disagree with the implication that because of this, it is somehow okay for queerphobia to persist.

Gender aside, relationships are, at best, complex, sometimes/often confusing, and I completely reject the illogical argument I so often encounter from other heterosexuals that just because they have not experienced 'queer' attractions, or because this represents a minority, that there must be something unnatural about it. Relationships, surely, aren't really about what sex we are - it's about the people we are, and how we relate to each other. I think it's fair for me to say that as a heterosexual women don't find myself attracted to men based entirely on their having a male reproductive organ. Hey, every second person has one of those.

Nature is (thankfully!) full of diversity - we not only rely on it, but thrive on it. From different talents (physicists to bakers to farmers to entertainers to teachers) to different plant types (those with medicinal uses - even the basic peppermint tea - to those that have the awe-inspiring ability to brighten one's day - I speak here of the cocoa plant!!) to the vastly differing climates that make it all possible, diversity is something to be embraced that, sadly, we as a species seem to have some irrational fear towards - be it racism, sexism, queerphobia, discrimination against those who look different - from dwarfism to red hair.

It's childish, unreasonable and seriously damaging to society as a whole. To be narrow-minded, to shut yourself off to forms of diversity, to all things currently unfamiliar to you, is the best way I can think of to make your life... poorer, dull. Less rich.

I encourage you to share any other articles that may be useful to quote to those queerphobic people we encounter day-to-dayon this forum.