'GAY' ANIMALS?

The good folks at the New York Times have an article sure to get a lot of play on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. Scientists have observed numerous cases classifed as homosexual behavior, although the definition is quite broad. Homosexual activists have jumped on such reports with gusto. If there are homosexual animals, then it all must be 'natural', right? And if it's 'natural' then homosexuals need special rights, etc., etc. Well, some animals eat their young, but we don't advocate that, do we?

The article discusses one case I'm sure would warm every feminist heart:

For Janet Mann, a professor of biology and psychology at Georgetown University, who has studied same-sex behavior in dolphin calves, their homosexuality "is about bond formation," she said, "not about being sexual for life."

She said that studies showed that adult male dolphins formed long-term alliances, sometimes in large groups. As adults, they cooperate to entice a single female and keep other males from her. Sometimes they share the female, or they may cooperate to help one male. "Male-male cooperation is extremely important," Ms. Mann said.

So to transfer this 'natural' behavior to the human world, imagine a group of guys bonding at prep school, enticing a woman in and then sharing her around.

Sounds just great, doesn't it?

A couple of years ago I was at the local park with my daughter. We were at the swings and there were a group of park ducks around. I had been noticing them and their frenetic activity. It became pretty clear what was going on--a group of drakes were essentially gang raping a female (?) duck. Not pleasant, especially when you have to deflect a 3 year old's questions. I assume what they were doing was 'natural' in that they had not been influenced by too much MTV.

The animal kingdom can teach us many things. Morals isn't one of them.