Curators say a Norwegian exhibition on homosexuality among animals has been well received, despite initial indications of strong opposition.
The Oslo Natural History Museum opened the show last week and says it has been well attended, not least by families.
Organisers reported early criticism of the project, and being told by one opponent they would “burn in hell”.
But there has been strong interest in an aspect of animal behaviour the museum says is quite common.
It says homosexuality has been observed among 1,500 species, and that in 500 of those it is well documented.
The exhibition – entitled Against Nature? – includes photographs of one male giraffe mounting another, of apes stimulating others of the same sex, and two aroused male right whales rubbing against each other.
The museum says it is the first exhibition in the world to touch on a subject that has been taboo in the past.
It says sex between animals – as between humans – is often a matter of enjoyment, rather than procreation, and that this applies to animals of the same sex as well as opposite sexes.
American commentators say the organizers are still worried about missing out on The Rapture.
[All right — I made that part up :)]
Perhaps its homophobia that seperates us from the other animals
Or at least an awareness of what is going on.
They don’t seem to want to say much about the % of purely homosexual animals, do they? Personally, I’m going to wait for the double-blind peer-reviewed comic book.
By this story and logic, we should believe the animals are showing us that interspecies human-animal sex is also very healthy and natural. As when your dog is trying to mate with you by humping your leg.
I am reminded of the salivating few who were so crushed to find that their champions, Silo and Roy, the gay penguins, broke up over some penguin tramp:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169653,00.html
“That all ended when Scrappy, a single female newly arrived from SeaWorld in San Diego, caught Silo’s eye.
“Silo and Roy stopped spending as much time together or building a nest,” said John Rowden, curator of animals at the zoo.
Silo promptly moved in with Scrappy, building a new nest with her.
Zookeepers were at a loss to explain Silo’s sudden conversion.”
It seems there must be a gene that specifically allows for sexual orientation conversions. How else do you explain it?:
There’s the gene that caused Anne Heche to dump Ellen DeGeneres to marry camerman Coley Laffoon.
And in the Foley “affair”, there’s that gene for a kid with steady girlfriends, who waltzes with girls and then finds himself getting increasingly excited by the advances of an old pervert.
So then maybe there are also convenient genes for bisexuality, beastiality, pedophilia, wife-swapping, liberalism…
And I say unto you-ah: Forgive the pengins Lord, for they know not what they do-ah! And now, put your hands into your monitor and feel the power of the Lord!
RBG
You jest RBG, but we are the sum of our genes.
Silo must have been a closet bisexual….
“By this story and logic, we should believe the animals are showing us that interspecies human-animal sex is also very healthy and natural.”
RBG, maybe you’re coming to this whole debate late, but for centuries people who argued against homosexual behavior claimed that it is unnatural. All this exhibit does is show that it is natural.
Makes you wonder how all the other Zoologists and universities missed it.
RBG
“RBG, maybe you’re coming to this whole debate late, but for centuries people who argued against homosexual behavior claimed that it is unnatural. All this exhibit does is show that it is natural.
Comment by SN — 10/19/2006”
So is killing and eating your young very natural.
Only among Republicans.
RBG & Syngensmyth:
Only a Christian will bitch, moan complain and that homosexuality is an unnatural thing; and when the evidence shows the opposite they start yapping childish things like “Then eating your young is a natural thing too.”
I was going to include muslims too but I don’t want to be shot 😉
homosexualty is an abnormal process in nature because all creatures who practice it are an evolutionary dead end. They do not reproduce and therefore do not pass on their flawed genes.
The flaw in their evolutionary(which as we all know is law to the ones who push this story as proof they are right)process is that for an evolutionary move to take place the gene has to be passed on (tab A into tab A does not a baby make)
Also these so called brilliant animals have brains the size of a piece of fruit at the largest and also these “brilliant ” animals also do things like ohh
dogs lick their butts, puppies eat their own poo, some animals eat their young ,whales beach themsleves on purpose (put em back in the water and they run ashore again ) I dont see these actions coming from enlightened species with this greater calling who simply choose to hump each other as proof that homosexualtiy is proper and need to be given minority status
(dont get me wrong what you do in your private bedroom is your business, and I dont care. Just dont come out of that bedroom and tell me I have to give you rights because of where you put your sexual organs and the way you choose to use them)
“So is killing and eating your young very natural.”
Let’s look at the three possibilities. It can be either natural, not natural, or a-natural. Since it occurs in nature it can be shown, quite conclusively that, yes, it is natural.
You seem to be confusing nature with morality. Merely because something is natural does not mean it’s right or that it should be done. I’m not entirely certain where you got such an absurd notion. I’m guessing it’s because you have a brain of a pea.
Disgusting exhibition of Penguin genitalia in that parade. God created Adam and Steve, not Linus and Steve.
“homosexualty is an abnormal process in nature because all creatures who practice it are an evolutionary dead end.”
Do you have kids that you take care of? If not, taking care of kids is a LOT of work. Good parents have to give up a lot of free time to devote to their children.
Now imagine two primitive tribes, if you will. In one tribe all of the adults have children to take care off, as birth control has not yet been invented. In the second tribe about 10% of the adults do not have children. Those adults are free to explore medicine, farming techniques, preparing for war, etc.
Now ask yourself, which tribe would survive better?
Angel Wong –
You’re wrong to suggest that all (or even most) Christians are homophobes, and all homophobes are Christian, but you’re right when you point out the contradiction in homophobes’ claims that homosexuality is both “contrary nature” and and “an animalistic instinct”.
Makes you wonder how all the other Zoologists and universities missed it.
RBG
Wishful thinking, RBG. Obviously you’ve had minimal exposure to any literature on zoology and animal behavior.
I’m not interested in anything in this thread until 0113addiv posts about his homosexual animal experiences 🙂
for an evolutionary move to take place the gene has to be passed on (tab A into tab A does not a baby make)
So I take it you’re not a Creationist? Or do you just use the “theory” of evolution (and overused Shakespeare cliches) when it’s convenient for you?
Also these so called brilliant animals have brains the size of a piece of fruit at the largest and also these “brilliant ” animals also do things like…
Where on Earth did you see anyone use the word “brilliant” to describe these animals, or any animals, for that matter? You’re babbling.
dont get me wrong what you do in your private bedroom is your business, and I dont care.
When a heterosexual says, “hello, I’d like you to meet my wife”, that is the same as, “hello, I’d like you to meet the female that I have sexual intercourse with on a semi-regular basis.”
Just dont come out of that bedroom and tell me I have to give you rights because of where you put your sexual organs and the way you choose to use them
What “rights” are you objecting to? The right to not be fired from one’s job solely on the basis of one’s orientation, perhaps? The right to not be harassed or even beaten because of one’s orientation?
Frank:
I’m just telling that many Christians LOVE to declare that homosexuality is against nature and yet is homosexuality is something that happens in nature among animals, and how religious people act like they have windozeME running on their heads when that evidence shows up.
So don’t be a Rumsfeld and stop spinning my words.
I’m not spinning your words, you should have chosen them more carefully, Angel W.
#15 the tribe with all the children will survive much better children help take care of children and also grow up to make more children and add to population making all the easier
you logic is flawedon that question
#19 evolution does take place I dont argue that but I DONT THINK I SPRUNG FORM THE LOINS OF A PREHISTORIC APE or that life just happened because some random amino acids bumped into each other. I believe in creator (GOD) who made all of this and made his things to evolve so that they can cope with changes on his planet
if people are putting these animals up to us as being proof that homosexuality is normal they must think them more evolved or brilliant that normal animals
I can see you are not married with that comment the comment my wife means you no longer have sex
the rights I am objecting to are I dont want in a fox hole with a homosexual I dont want to have to employ a homosexual but I also dont want ot employ a goth or a tatto freak those are all choices your race is not and that is something that I do not under any cercumstances think should bediscriminated against
Won’t this exhibit offend Muslims?
Hope you will thread the interesting things.
Have a good luck.
The ancient Christian practice of marrying gay people:
Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe
“From Publishers Weekly
The acceptance and sanctification of homosexual relations in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches during Medieval Europe are examined in this scholarly work.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Not since Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1981) have Christians of all creeds confronted a work that makes them look so closely at their notions of the relationship between the church and its gay and lesbian believers. Diligently researched and documented, this immensely scholarly work covers everything from the “paired” saints of Perpetua and Felicitas and Serge and Bacchus to lesbian transvestites in Albania. Examining evidence that the early church celebrated a same-sex nuptial liturgy, Boswell compares both Christian same-sex unions to Christian heterosexual unions and non-Christian same-sex unions to non-Christian heterosexual unions. Appendixes contain, among other things, translations and transcriptions of cited documents. Whether or not minds are changed on the matter will probably fall along sectarian lines, according to current attitudes on homosexuality. However, the work will provoke dialog. A groundbreaking book for academic, public, and theological libraries.
–Lee Arnold, Historical Society of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia”
[edited — Milo you know better — pls use tinyurl]
Link
Or how about:
“Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century”
Book Description
John Boswell’s highly acclaimed study of the history of attitudes toward homosexuality in the Christian West challenges received opinion and our own preconceptions about the Church’s past relationship to its gay members, among whom were priests, bishops and even canonized saints. The historical breadth of Boswell’s research (from the Greeks to Aquinas) and the variety of sources consulted (legal, literary, theological, artistic, and scientific) make this one of the most extensive treatments of any single aspect of Western social history. The product of ten years of research and analysis of records in a dozen languages, this book opens up a new area of historical inquiry and helps elucidate the origins and operations of intolerance as a social force.”
[edited — pls, pls use tinyurl]
Link
It’s all just part of the wonders of nature. A dog licks his rear end and yet has less bacteria in his mouth than a human who brushes his teeth several times a day. A 6 week old copraphiliac puppy knows by scent which poop is safe and which comes from a puppy that is sick. A male Poodle may look gay, but if you leave one alone with a female flannel dog bed Pit Bull and you will have little Pit Poodles in no time. Sometimes it is a chromosome that took a wrong turn on the helix. Sometimes it’s from having hair dyed pink and given rhinestones to wear. I’m referring to Elton John here not the Poodle. In any case, there are lots of reasons for the things people and animals do. Except of course that damn Republican Mark Foley. Now that’s something a penguin would never do. Harassing pages that is, it’s any-body’s guess on how Mark Foley and penguins would hit it off. Sorry about this post, I just wanted to see if I could get from gay penguins to congressmen in less tha 6 sentences.
than
pmitchell –
I dont want to have to employ a homosexual but I also dont want ot employ a goth or a tatto freak those are all choices your race is not and that is something that I do not under any cercumstances think should bediscriminated against
How do gays and lesbians “choose” to become aroused by members of their own sex? Or to put it more bluntly, how does a gay man choose to become erect in the presence of another man (and to be unable to do so in the presence of a woman)?
#19 evolution does take place I dont argue that but I DONT THINK I SPRUNG FORM THE LOINS OF A PREHISTORIC APE
Funny, you write as though you did.
if people are putting these animals up to us as being proof that homosexuality is normal they must think them more evolved or brilliant that normal animals
Oh my… the fun never ends.
I can see you are not married with that comment the comment my wife means you no longer have sex
Could you translate that into English, please? Are you saying that I am married to a comment? Are you saying I’m no longer having sex with your wife?
the rights I am objecting to are I dont want in a fox hole with a homosexual
What are you afraid of? Do you think they will find you attractive enough that they will forget all their military discipline and immediately jump your bones? Don’t flatter yourself, mouth-breather.
Milo –
Long URLs mess up the formatting of the blog. In the future please enter them thus:
{a href=”URL“>description of website{/a} (substitute angular brackets for parentheses)
Same goes for the TinyURL addicts, too.
17. Actually I have a degree in zoology and I can tell you flat out that in the entire 4 years, it came up only once in the context of over-crowded mice. But like I said, the profs and researchers must have just missed seeing it or maybe it’s just secret insider information they reveal only in a PhD.
RBG