Comments on: Why The Gay Squid Actually Isn't

By: Lastest Gay / Lesbian News | Tom Wilt News

Lastest Gay / Lesbian News | Tom Wilt News — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:34:05 +0000

[...] Why The Gay Squid Actually Isn't It's really easy to be excited about this, the same way it's easy to be excited when people find gay penguins (!). Or lesbian koalas! Or gay black swans! Or gay big horn sheep! Or lesbian albatrosses! Bottlenose dolphins and bonobo chimps are the most … Read more on Autostraddle [...]

By: GrrrlRomeo

GrrrlRomeo — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:06:19 +0000

In my experience in arguing with people opposed to homosexuality, 100% of the argument against homosexuality is irrational. Homophobia is a gut reaction people try to rationalize. Though they may veer into quasi-science as a counter-point, it’s not usually the foundation of their argument. The foundation of their argument is fear.

In 16 years arguing with people, I’ve never had someone come back with “animals don’t have souls.” Probably because at that point they’re trying to make a quasi-scientific argument.

A typical portion of the argument goes something like this: “Homosexuality can’t be natural because gay people can’t procreate naturally. Tolerance of homosexuality would lead to human extinction.”

Human extinction? That’s a pretty scary thing. Counter-point: Homosexuality has been observed in other species of animals and has not been a cause of extinction.

Homophobia is an irrational fear of homosexuality. It’s emotional. You’re not actually going up against a rational or scientific argument. They just try to make it seem that way, mostly because they’re also trying to convince themselves that they’re not just being an intolerant bigot out of fear. No, they’re being an intolerant bigot for the greater good of humanity. They’re trying to save humanity from extinction or annihilation by God’s wrath. They’re justifying and rationalizing their intolerance of a few by convincing themselves and others they’re trying to save the many.

But you know, the majority of people actually aren’t that extreme with the apocalyptic argument. They’re in the middle struggling to pick a side, to pick the argument that feels the most right to them. You just have to help them overcome their fear.

By: idotry

idotry — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:33:48 +0000

Lesbian koalas sound adorable.
I wonder if there are also lesbian drop bears.
Now that would be infinitely less adorable.

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:27:49 +0000

Koalas are my new second favorite animals!

Also, I now understand all the koala references in TRLW. Nice.

By: Sharks

Sharks — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:04:56 +0000

You know, that’s kind of the same feeling I had about hetero sex once I could understand it, too.

By: bra

bra — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:43:14 +0000

“The last thing I want to do is slut-shame a dolphin.”

By: Rose

Rose — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:00:12 +0000

Yeah, it’s only useful against the argument that homosexuality is “unnatural.” But it doesn’t work as an argument that it should be accepted, since there are plenty of truly abhorrent sexual behaviors – like rape, necrophilia, interspecies screwing and pedophilia – which are also extremely common across the whole animal kingdom. Other species reflect pretty much the whole rainbow of human sexuality and then some:
http://www.blaghag.com/2009/04/natural-sexuality.html

By: emma

emma — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:17:41 +0000

cool!

yeah, another aspect of this is that using animals to argue that gay sex is OK b/c it’s “natural” implies that things are only ok if they are natural. and obvs being gay is OK whether or not it’s natural.

AND things like this always get me thinking about the extremely blurry line between what’s natural and what’s not. like arguably everything humans do is natural since we’re animals.

By: novastar

novastar — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:48:14 +0000

Probably not, but people have argued/do argue that gayness is “unnatural” because animals never have gay sex, which is categorically false.

I would tend to agree, however, that non-human animals aren’t really the best models for how we define or relate to our own sexualities.

By: Paper0Flowers

Paper0Flowers — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:41:13 +0000

I also think it could be an argument *for* homophobia: “If animals engage in abhorrent behaviour, it’s because they’re animals and don’t have a soul/Grace of God/weren’t made in His image like humans” ergo homosexuality = beastly and inhuman. *sigh* If you’re deeply rooted in Biblical homophobia, then you can use anything to support it.

By: Paper0Flowers

Paper0Flowers — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:39:28 +0000

Bahahahaha no wonder I’ve always liked the Japanese macaques. And here I thought it was just because they’re smart…

By: thinksmall

thinksmall — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:25:10 +0000

“Finding “gay” animals is also an easy way to argue against homophobic creationists, because look, if the dolphins/bonobos/penguins are sometimes gay, then it must be OK that people are sometimes gay, too.”

Are people actually convinced by this argument? I guess the Supreme Court is, but you know, some animals eat their own young–that doesn’t mean it’s OK for us to do it.