acutus said:
Could you please provide us with a couple of examples of Homosexuality occurring in Nature, Mr. Dave in Phoenix?
Happy to, these are old examples many more since but:
"A Polysexual, Polygendered World," In the Animal Kindom as in humans
Gay sheep may shed light on sexuality
November 5, 2002 Highlights
Complete article at
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/11/05/science.sheep.reut/index.html
Scientists studied 27 sheep -- 10 ewes, nine rams that mated only with other rams and eight rams that mated only with females.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Gay sheep that mate only with other rams have different brain structures from "straight" sheep, a finding that may shed light on human sexuality, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The differences are similar to those seen in some homosexual humans, but probably only go a small way to explaining the causes of different sexual preferences, the team at Oregon Health & Science University said.
Brains may hold the answer
First the scientists watched the sheep to be sure of their behavior -- something that cannot be done with humans. Then they took apart their brains.
"There had been reports in humans that a certain area of the hypothalamus, the preoptic area ... was usually larger in males than females," Roselli said. This area was also found to be larger in heterosexual humans than in homosexual men.
But the researchers had used the brains of men who had died of AIDS in their study, which meant the disease or drugs used to treat it could have had an effect on the brain.
"With an animal model you can be more selective and do more controlled studies," Roselli said. The sheep had similar differences in their brains, the researchers told a meeting in Orlando, Florida, of the Society for Neuroscience. "In a sense we confirmed what been found in humans," Roselli said. The brain cells in this area also made greater amounts of an enzyme called aromatase in the heterosexual rams. Aromatase is involved in the action of testosterone, the so-called male hormone.
Roselli believes that exposure to hormones while still in the mother's womb may affect the brain and cause differences in sexual preference, and more experiments will aim to show whether this is true.
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"A Polysexual, Polygendered World," In the Animal Kindom that is....
Gayness in the Animal Kingdom is very common and natural just as in man/women kind.
Biological Exuberance : Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl,
751 pp, with illus, $40, ISBN 0-312-19239-8, New York, NY, St Martin's Press, 1999.
Reviewed in JAMA of the American Medical Assn April 26, 2000 Highlights:
Reviewed by William Byne, MD, PhD
A good thing about science is that, given enough time, it will eventually correct itself. Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl illustrates that self-correcting process by dispelling two prevalent myths: that reproduction is the sole reason for sexual behavior and that homosexuality is hard to find in the animal kingdom.
The book contains two sections. In the first, "A Polysexual, Polygendered World," Bagemihl examines the hidden assumptions behind the way scientists interpret homosexual behavior in animals. Assumptions that tend to explain animal homosexuality out of existence are carefully analyzed as are the double standards often used in characterizing behaviors as sexual when they involve members of the other but not the same sex.
As stated succinctly by James Lovelock, "as diversity increases, so does stability and resilience." From this perspective, diverse sexualities, including homosexualities, should be expected throughout the animal kingdom. Biological Exuberance thus offers a hypothesis for the maintenance within populations of homosexual behaviors and other behaviors that are often presumed to be at odds with reproduction.
The second section, "A Wonderful Bestiary," is organized in a field-guide format and documents homosexuality as well as "nonreproductive and alternative heterosexualities" in 190 species. In total, this abundantly illustrated book compiles more than two centuries of observations of homosexual behavior, pair bonding, and coparenting in more than 400 species. These include observations of species in which homosexual but not heterosexual pair bonding has been documented and others in which same-sex courtship and sexuality are so pervasive that "females are said to `mimic' males in order to mate with them." The sheer scope and thorough documentation of this book make it an extremely valuable resource for anyone interested in the diversity of animal behavior and sexuality.
"What is remarkable about the entire debate about the naturalness of homosexuality," according to Bagemihl, "is the frequent absence of any reference to concrete facts or accurate, comprehensive information about animal homosexuality." Heretofore, for reasons that are examined in the first section of the book, much of this information has been virtually inaccessible to scholars. Biological Exuberance fills that void, and there can no longer be any excuse for such omissions.
Another review:
He firmly dispels the prevailing notion that homosexuality is uniquely human and only occurs in "unnatural" circumstances. An overview of biologists' discomfort with their own observations of animal homosexuality over 200 years would be truly hilarious if it didn't reflect a tendency of humans (and only humans) to respond with aggression and hostility to same-sex behavior in our own species. In fact, Bagemihl reports, scientists have sometimes been afraid to report their observations for fear of recrimination from a hidebound (and homophobic) academia. Scientists' use of anthropomorphizing vocabulary such as insulting, unfortunate, and inappropriate to describe same-sex matings shows a decided lack of objectivity on the part of naturalists. Astounding as it sounds, a number of scientists have actually argued that when a female Bonobo wraps her legs around another female ... while emitting screams of enjoyment, this is actually "greeting" behavior, or "appeasement" behavior ... almost anything, it seems, besides pleasurable sexual behavior. Throw this book into the middle of a crowd of wildlife biologists and watch them scatter. But Bagemihl doesn't let the scientific community's discomfort deny him the opportunity to show "the love that dare not bark its name" in all its feathery, furry, toothy diversity. The second half of this hefty tome is filled with an exhaustive array of species that exhibit homosexuality, complete with photos and detailed scientific illustrations of the behaviors described. Biological Exuberance is a well-researched, thoroughly scientific, and erudite look at a purposefully neglected frontier of zoology. --Therese Littleton
Continued