Defining Gender and Sexuality
Our Opinion / Why do certain people demonize, scrutinize and ostracize a phantom menace?
You probably already noticed this week that we have our annual Pride insert. With FM Pride events coming up just around the corner (June 12-21), there could not be a more appropriate time to address gay rights. You may have read in recent news that Iowa was just added to the roster of states to legalize gay marriage. Even more recently, the New Hampshire Senate just passed a bill approving gay marriage. Good on you, Iowa and New Hampshire. Slowly, but surely, progress is being made in the national scope. While we may have failed in North Dakota, the future of GLBTQ rights in our nation is beginning to look up.
So what’s all the fuss about homosexuality to begin with? Our understanding of gender and sexuality is so ill-defined that one can hardly criticize homosexuality with a meritorious argument. There is, of course, the argument that it is not “natural.” Let us examine that one for a moment.
A Natural Perspective
“In the dimly lit undergrowth of a Central American rain forest, jewel-like male hummingbirds flit through the vegetation, pausing briefly to mate now with a male, now with a female. A whale glides through the dark and icy waters of the Arctic, then surges toward the surface in a playful frenzy of churning water and splashing, her fins and tale caressing another female… In a protected New Zealand inlet, a pair of female gulls — mated for life — tend their chicks together. Tiny midges swarm above a bleak tundra above northern Europe, a whirlwind of mating activity as males couple with each other in midair. Circling and prancing around her partner, a female antelope courts another female in an ageless, elegant ritual staged on the African savanna.”
This is an excerpt from Canadian biologist Bruce Bagemihl’s book “Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.” The examples listed above are just a few of many. His book estimates there are over 1,500 species that demonstrate homosexual tendencies — and those are only the ones we are aware of. There is plenty of evidence that homosexuality is “natural.” Take the Black Swan, for example.
An estimated 25 percent of Black Swans form homosexual relationships. Often times one of the males in such a relationship will mate with a female strictly to produce offspring. Once the female lays her eggs, the male couple will chase the female out of her nest and raise the eggs without her services. The Black Swan not only demonstrates that homosexuality does occur in nature, but they also serve as a clear example of homosexual couples forming functional family units.
The Amazon Dolphin is a particularly interesting example. They’ve been known to congregate in groups of three to five, engaging in group sex with both genders. The general behaviors they demonstrate are considered non-reproductive, performing sexual acts using virtually all parts of their bodies on either gender. This is also the only species in the world to be observed performing “nasal sex” (penetration of the blowhole).
Even our beloved American Bison has been observed performing homosexual acts. If we follow an anti-gay train of thought, does this mean that nature itself is unnatural?
What About Man?
The concept of gender roles throughout human history, aside from the obvious physical roles in procreation, is mostly rooted in the notion of gender-specified division of labor. The American need for gender roles, thanks to advancements in civil rights, died with the archaic notion of subservient housewives locked in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
This is not to discriminate against housewives — it is an honorable way of life — but rather we mean to emphasize that in our society women have a choice. They are not bound to the home anymore, and we have a greater society because of it. In the same vein, as we are seeing more and more, men have proven to be equally functional when it comes to raising children. Child-rearing is no longer a gender-specific role. And the debunking of gender roles is becoming more and more prevalent. We have male nurses and female athletes. Stewardesses have given way to flight attendants, and the world keeps on turning without any societal need for gender roles.
The very nature of gender and sexuality is colored with so many shades of gray. We haven’t even begun to discuss the even less defined transgender/intersex/transexual aspect of gender identity. Perhaps we’ll save that for a future editorial. Ultimately, the point is that we understand very little about sexuality in nature, and perhaps even less about it in humans. Why then do certain people feel justified to demonize, scrutinize and ostracize a phantom menace? It is an exercise in utter arrogance and simple-mindedness. We hold our species — and even those in the animal kingdom — in higher regard than that.
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