Think queerness is a human-only trait? Think again. In this eye-opening episode, we unravel the myths about LGBTQIA+ behaviors being exclusive to humans by showcasing the vibrant spectrum of queerness in the animal kingdom. From the emotional bond between Max and David, two male chimpanzees who found solace in each other after a traumatic ordeal, to the heartwarming fact that 31% of chick-rearing albatross couples on Oahu Island are female pairs, we explore the profound and natural presence of queerness in the wild. With examples spanning from homosexuality in over half of non-human primate species to same-sex relations among beetles and penguins, we underscore that these behaviors are neither rare nor unnatural.
But that's not all—our journey into the natural world challenges deep-seated human biases and outdated morality concepts that have tainted scientific studies for too long. We discuss the importance of not projecting our prejudices onto animals to truly understand their behaviors. As a tantalizing finale, we hint at future explorations into LGBTQ traits in the plant kingdom, promising more intriguing discoveries ahead. Join us as we celebrate Pride by acknowledging the beautiful queerness that exists in both the animal and human worlds, reminding everyone to stay safe, stay queer, and enjoy a wonderful Pride!
Think queerness is a human-only trait? Think again. In this eye-opening episode, we unravel the myths about LGBTQIA+ behaviors being exclusive to humans by showcasing the vibrant spectrum of queerness in the animal kingdom. From the emotional bond between Max and David, two male chimpanzees who found solace in each other after a traumatic ordeal, to the heartwarming fact that 31% of chick-rearing albatross couples on Oahu Island are female pairs, we explore the profound and natural presence of queerness in the wild. With examples spanning from homosexuality in over half of non-human primate species to same-sex relations among beetles and penguins, we underscore that these behaviors are neither rare nor unnatural.
But that's not all—our journey into the natural world challenges deep-seated human biases and outdated morality concepts that have tainted scientific studies for too long. We discuss the importance of not projecting our prejudices onto animals to truly understand their behaviors. As a tantalizing finale, we hint at future explorations into LGBTQ traits in the plant kingdom, promising more intriguing discoveries ahead. Join us as we celebrate Pride by acknowledging the beautiful queerness that exists in both the animal and human worlds, reminding everyone to stay safe, stay queer, and enjoy a wonderful Pride!
chimpanzees, monkey, that they're all just a little gay. Me, my lesbians. Albatross is gay as fuck. Bisexuality, pansexuals, many primates, bottlenose, dolphins, even some flamingos. The domestic sheep is a well-known queer icon. The komodo dragon entirely ace. 500 species of fish can change their sex and are themselves intersex. Fish are queer. So many fish. I want to be a gobby fish. I want to be able to swap back and forth whenever my little heart damn, please. Thank you. So how y'all doing today? Are we good? I hope we're starting off our Mondays right. Obviously you are, because you're here listening to the queerst podcast on the East Coast.
Speaker 1:
Today we're going to talk about queerness in nature and, you know, in just the animal kingdom. We're not really going to go into plants, even though there are plenty of examples of specifically asexual reproduction in the plant universe, specifically asexual reproduction in the plant universe. We're going to keep this specifically to the animal kingdom. So, outside of humans, because, yes, we are a part of the animal kingdom, we are going to be discussing queerness in other aspects of the animal kingdom, outside of just humanity. For centuries, it was believed that queerness was only prevalent among people, leading many religious and legal forces to label it behavioral Because it wasn't exhibited in other animals, we assumed it was a specifically human and thus behavioral thing. So because of that, we assumed that that behavior could be punished or changed. Right Again, just going back to a lot of the history that we've already touched on in other episodes, you know it's becoming clearer every single day that queerness is prevalent throughout the entirety of the natural world, and much of that evidence just spent centuries being either ignored or entirely hidden from the public eye. Being either ignored or entirely hidden from the public eye. Dating all the way back to the 1800s, scientists and naturalists were in heated debates about reported sexual behavior between male beetles. So, like it goes way back To name every example of every animal discovered having queer traits thus far, we would be here all day. We would be here constantly. There are close to 1,000 species that have confirmed LGBTQIA plus traits. So, again, we'd be here all damn day. So instead, what we're going to do is touch on as many identities as possible that are prevalent within the animal kingdom. So, across the LGBTQIA, if you will, we're going to try to touch on some of those different letters in the different identities the letters Jesus, the alphabet, mafia, gang. We're going to try to touch on the different identities included within the LGBTQ community and show those identities within the animal kingdom. I hope that makes sense. So we're going to start out with homosexuality, which is just obviously men loving men or Achillean. You know, shout out to my boys For homosexuality.
Speaker 1:
We're going to start with Max and David, who are adult chimpanzees at the same sanctuary. Max was having behavioral issues after being attacked by a dominant female and after this attack, was struggling to bond with other chimps, including things like baring his teeth, screaming and turning from one friend to the next. So most chimpanzees, you know, like they bond with specific groups. They bond with specific other chimpanzees, they have their little tribes. He, after this attack, could not bond with any one singular or group of chimpanzees, chimpanzee who approached Max with sexual intent and through this interaction, which implies trust. You know there's an implicit trust occurring between these two male chimpanzees that are occurring in this sexual act and it's the first time that Max was able to show that kind of trust in the aftermath of being attacked by a dominant female. So there's this implicit trust that's occurring between the two of them and Max and David were able to be together.
Speaker 1:
You know, and as a prominent primatologist, the study of monkey their name is Jake Booker stated I've never really seen a male chimp that is entirely heterosexual Like this man's, the study of monkey. And you know, even he's like, yeah, they're all a little gay. They're all just a little gay, which you know. What fair Kings and queens, we are also primates. We're just the human variety of primate, but non-human primates. Over half of species of non-human primates have been shown to exhibit homosexuality regularly, in some instances even more often than opposite gender relations. Same-sex relations have been noticed both in captivity and in the wild, and in both male and females. That is very important. This isn't something that's explicitly a captivity only thing. Outside of their natural environment, they're caught doing these things. This is a trait. Homosexuality as a trait amongst primates is something that exists both in captivity and in the wild, in their natural environments. So that's score one for the queers, you know.
Speaker 1:
And now we're going to move on to lesbianism. My gals, my ladies, I love my lesbians. Janine I'm sad she couldn't be here today for this one, because I feel like she'd love this. It's a good one. So I love me, my lesbians. I love me my women. I, every once in a while, I'll be driving down the road. I'll just, you know, like, like you know you're driving and you see, like people walking by and stuff like that, I'll just like a group of like women or girls laughing. I'll just be like I love women, you know, like it's just I love girlhood.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, as many as 31% of Malaysian albatross couples found rearing a chick on Oahu Island in Hawaii are two females and, just like their heterosexual counterparts, they mate for life. So yeah, and they also raise their chicks together in unison, similarly to how swans raise their chicks in a partnership and mate for life. Albatrosses are the same and, as of 31% of these coupled chick-rearing albatrosses are lesbians. We knew for many years about the lifelong mating habits of these birds, but it was not until 2008 when biologist Lindsay C Young, a queen, discovered these pairings need not be heterosexual. The 31% figure, which was discovered by the woman herself, lindsay C Young, is more than double the highest proportion of female-female pairings previously known by any animal.
Speaker 1:
Albatross is gay as fuck Like. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. And it just goes to show, when we actually start to study these animals and the natural world through a non-judgmental lens, of just letting the natural world be what it is and observing it rather than placing our own prejudices and biases upon it. We could learn so much. We could understand so much more about what's happening around us, rather than arguing about whether or not it's moral. That's an animal, that is a non-conscious animal, like you know. We are animals but we have conscious thought. We ask questions like what happens when we die. You know, like that, we are capable of conscious thought. Animals. With stripping away the bias that we approach each other with god, we could learn so much, like the fact that albatross is gay as fuck. That's a really cool thing to learn anyway.
Speaker 1:
So, moving on, we're gonna go on to bisexuality. I, I love, I love my bisexuals, my, my royals, my, my kings and queens I am one of. Technically I'm pan, but sometimes you just don't really want to have to explain to people what pansexual means, so you say you're bi. I'm sure y'all get it. I'm sure if there are any pansexuals watching or listening out there, y'all understand. Sometimes it's just easier to say I'm bi. All understand. Sometimes it's just easier to say I'm bi.
Speaker 1:
But yeah, for this little umbrella for this section, just about every species showing traits of homosexuality also shows traits of bisexuality, with many of these animals engaging in relations with members of the same sex before going on to mate with the opposite sex. Many, many primates, bottlenose, dolphins, even some flamingos have been observed to partake in same-sex relations only to then mate with the opposite sex. So you know flamingos, that's fun. I don't know about y'all. I love flamingos, actually, a little fun fact the only reason they're pink is because of the amount of shrimp that they eat. When they're born, they're like a deep grayish or light grayish in color and they turn pink over time due to their diet. Fun fact for you I learned that because when I was little, I ate so many carrots my fingertips turned orange and I didn't know that could happen. And that's how I learned about flamingos, the more you know.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, the domestic sheep is a well-known queer icon, with as many as 10% of rams being exclusively homosexual. Rams gay icons, love them. Up to 22% of them are also bisexual Slay. Recent studies have shown that they're not done flaunting their pride just yet. It has been found that anywhere from 2-3% of rams may have no interest in mating with either sex, entirely ace, because it's a Komodo dragon and they're cool as fuck and they will poison you and then just follow you and wait for the poison to kick in. Another fun animal fact for you that's outside of the queer realm Komodo dragons will poison their prey, and if their prey is able to walk away from that, it'll just keep following you. It'll just walk the fuck after you until you drop even humans. So don't get cornered by a Komodo dragon, is my best advice. If you find yourself in that situation, though, I think you've already made a couple of decisions that I would have told you were bad ones.
Speaker 1:
So there's also some other animals, include blacktop whales, wasps, nematodes and more. There are plenty of it's, not just plants. There are plenty of it's, not just plants. There are plenty of animals that reproduce asexually. So yeah, it's, it's pretty cool. We got our ace representation out there in the animal kingdom as well, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, for all of my aqua queers out there I know plenty of them I've got.
Speaker 1:
My bestie is is, uh, such an aqua queer. I see you out there. You have more in common with your special interests than you think. Just so you know, since around 500 species of fish can change their sex and are themselves intersex, so fish are queer. So many fish, 500 species so many To sit here all day and find every fish, bro. So many fish. Nemo's dad would have become his mom long before he touched the butt.
Speaker 1:
Since clownfish live in groups of males with one dominant female. She mates with one and if she dies, her mate switches from male to female. The asian sheephead warsey does the opposite, changing from female to male when needed, while some, like gobbies, can switch back and forth. A gender fluid dream. If I could be anything, it would be a gobby like bet I bet, sign me up. I want to be a gobby, I want to be a gobby fish. I want to be able to to swap back and forth whenever my little heart, damn please, thank you, that is. You know that touches on a good amount of the rainbow, but again, there are close to a thousand species of animals that are provenly known scientifically to have queer, lgbtq traits.
Speaker 1:
If you're interested in a really cute story about some of those animals, may I recommend Along Came Tango. I can't remember the name of the author, but if you just Google Along Came Tango, it'll come right up. It's based on a true story about two penguins at I believe it was the Central Park Zoo, both male, who very often were found trying to hatch and build nests for rocks that were very much shaped like eggs. And when the Central Park Zoo came across a abandoned penguin egg in their rescue operations if you will, I'll use that word loosely because I'm not a huge fan of zoos and I don't quite know the specifics of how the Central Park Zoo cares for their stuff. So I will say rescue operations in quotes and very loosely. But in those operations they ended up finding an abandoned penguin egg and gave this penguin egg to these two male penguins who were desperate to hatch a rock and they have been some of the best fathers. Like they hatched the penguin. The penguin is named tango. She is still at the central park zoo if you would like to go see her. She's adorable I mean, obviously she's an adult now because this was years ago at this point but it is a phenomenal story of, just again, another example of queerness in the natural world.
Speaker 1:
And if we are able to look at the world around us without our own biases, oh the shit we could learn. Oh, my God, the things we could learn. We just have to remember that they are not us, we are not them, they don't. Whatever God we think they believe in, they don't. They have no concept of that whatsoever. Morals not really. I don't know if you've seen any, you know documentaries. Morals not really something an animal is, you know like, really on board with, because they're not capable of it.
Speaker 1:
So we have to be able to remove our own biases when we are studying the natural world, because you can't look at it through a human lens, you have to look at it through the lens of that animal, even like with the beetles I mentioned. Back in the 1800s they discovered these beetles that were exhibiting male-male sexual behavior and there were scientists that were saying things like it was horrendous, nightmarish, immoral behavior. Like they're beetles, bro, they're gonna do what they're gonna do we have heard of who have some, albeit questionable, sexual acts, but some of their sexual acts include male male and female female behavior and the scientist who was first able to observe them just assumed that he had stumbled upon something unnatural to these penguins, even though he was the first to witness it, these penguins, even though he was the first to witness it. He just assumed that because it was so unnatural to human behavior, it must be unnatural to these penguins as well, when in fact it's completely natural, even the really bad stuff.
Speaker 1:
We can't go into animal environments expecting them to have the same decorum as humans. That's just dumb. And at the end of the day, you know, removing your own homophobia, removing your own prejudices, can can truly teach you a lot about the animal worlds. And not at all saying that, you know, homosexuality is against a decorum, but for the time period these animals were being studied, it was against decorum. It was considered behavioural, it was considered unnatural, it was considered treatable, curable, fixable. So when you're looking at it through that historical lens of when these animals were discovered, it makes sense why it took so long for those prejudices to be removed from the findings or those findings to be entirely redone through a new lens without so much bias. So, yeah, I just I find all that really interesting. You know, in general, the animal world is a fascinating one.
Speaker 1:
The animal kingdom is a beautiful one and a really, really, really fucking weird one. A really weird one. We're gonna end this one off with a fun slash interesting fact and, calling back to earlier, we are touching on the bonobo. So the bonobo, which is a type of monkey that shares 98.7% of their DNA with us is known for many things, one of them being that the adults partake in habitual same-sex relations, meaning same-sex relations happen at similar, if not greater, rates than opposite sex. So like we are really like genetically fair with this monkey you know this monkey I kind of got a lot going on in common and same-sex relation among the adults in the bonobo almost more common, which is wild and really cool and really fun and I love that so much.
Speaker 1:
I think it just goes to show again, we spent way too long trying to view the animal kingdom through a lens in which it was never intended to be viewed. It was never intended to be viewed as practically us Like no, it's a lot, it's a lot different. But also we are animal, animal us. There's a lot of things that are just natural to all of us, you know, including queerness. Queerness is and always has been among us. It has always been in the animal kingdom, in the human kingdom, in the plant kingdom. Queerness abounds, you know.
Speaker 1:
Actually, if y'all are interested in an episode about you know examples of LGBTQ traits in the plant world, please let us know, because that would be a pretty fascinating episode. I definitely feel like the animal kingdom is talked about much more than the plant kingdom when it comes to examples of queerness in nature, but I think that makes sense because, again, we are just more evolved, hairless animals. Thank you all so much for giving us a listen. Stay safe, stay queer, and I hope you all are having a wonderful, wonderful Pride. I am going to be ending off my pride by seeing. I Saw the TV Glow not once but twice. I'm really excited and I will let y'all know what I think of it. Outro Music.