NYTimes: GaySex Common Among Animals

[DudeAsInCool]

Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name

February 7, 2004

By DINITIA SMITH

Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park

Zoo in Manhattan, are completely devoted to each other. For

nearly six years now, they have been inseparable. They

exhibit what in penguin parlance is called "ecstatic

behavior": that is, they entwine their necks, they vocalize

to each other, they have sex. Silo and Roy are, to

anthropomorphize a bit, gay penguins. When offered female

companionship, they have adamantly refused it. And the

females aren't interested in them, either.

At one time, the two seemed so desperate to incubate an egg

together that they put a rock in their nest and sat on it,

keeping it warm in the folds of their abdomens, said their

chief keeper, Rob Gramzay. Finally, he gave them a fertile

egg that needed care to hatch. Things went perfectly. Roy

and Silo sat on it for the typical 34 days until a chick,

Tango, was born. For the next two and a half months they

raised Tango, keeping her warm and feeding her food from

their beaks until she could go out into the world on her

own. Mr. Gramzay is full of praise for them.

"They did a great job," he said. He was standing inside the

glassed-in penguin exhibit, where Roy and Silo had just

finished lunch. Penguins usually like a swim after they

eat, and Silo was in the water. Roy had finished his dip

and was up on the beach.

Roy and Silo are hardly unusual. Milou and Squawk, two

young males, are also beginning to exhibit courtship

behavior, hanging out with each other, billing and bowing.

Before them, the Central Park Zoo had Georgey and Mickey,

two female Gentoo penguins who tried to incubate eggs

together. And Wendell and Cass, a devoted male African

penguin pair, live at the New York Aquarium in Coney

Island. Indeed, scientists have found homosexual behavior

throughout the animal world.

This growing body of science has been increasingly drawn

into charged debates about homosexuality in American

society, on subjects from gay marriage to sodomy laws,

despite reluctance from experts in the field to extrapolate

from animals to humans. Gay groups argue that if homosexual

behavior occurs in animals, it is natural, and therefore

the rights of homosexuals should be protected. On the other

hand, some conservative religious groups have condemned the

same practices in the past, calling them "animalistic."

But if homosexuality occurs among animals, does that

necessarily mean that it is natural for humans, too? And

that raises a familiar question: if homosexuality is not a

choice, but a result of natural forces that cannot be

controlled, can it be immoral?

To read the rest of the story, go here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/arts/07GAY.html