Let’s Do It!
Birds do it, Bess do it.
Even educated fleas do it.
Let’s do it. Let’s fall in love.
Okay, so maybe Cole Porter wasn’t giving a scientific dissertation in his classic song, “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)”, but the gay, prolific, and arguably genius composer of the early 20th century does ruminate in the lyrics on just how ordinary love and sex are across the natural world.
Romantic sponges, they say, do it
Oysters down in Oyster Bay do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love.
There’s an argument often made by anti-LGBTQ crusaders that same-sex relations – pairing, bonding, mating and sex – are somehow unnatural acts; however, nothing could be further from the truth. Science has for many years been studying same-sex pairings throughout the animal kingdom and has found homosexuality across all classes: in mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish and other invertebrates. In fact, no species has been found in which homosexual behavior has not been shown to exist, except for species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins or aphids. Moreover, a part of the animal kingdom is hermaphroditic; that is to say, truly bisexual. For them, homosexuality is not an issue.
Did you know...
- Up to 90% of giraffe sex is male on male. (Talk about some serious necking!) It is extremely common for two male giraffes to caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. In fact, such interactions between males have been found to be far more frequent than heterosexual coupling.
- Both male and female Asian elephants engage in homosexual activity, with about 45% of sexual encounters being as such. Male elephants of this and other species often live away from the herd, and it is common for an older male to take one or two younger “companion” males to live, travel and have sex with.
- Bottlenose dolphins of both genders regularly engage in homosexual sex, using it as a social bonding mechanism. In fact, in confrontations between flocks of bottlenose dolphins and Atlantic spotted dolphins, males will often engage in group sex rather than in combat.
- 10% of male sheep are exclusively homosexual and will only mount males even in the presence of estrous ewes, and up to 20% of all sheep are bisexual. In several sheep species in the wild (bighorn, thinhorn, Asian mouflons, urials), both genders have been observed having homosexual sex in groups of up to 10, which scientists call “huddles.” For farmers breeding domestic sheep, the Merck Manual of Veterinary Medicine considers homosexuality among sheep as such a routine occurrence that it’s an issue to be dealt with in animal husbandry.
And the list goes on and on. Whether you’re bird, bat, bison, bonobo, bedbug, or Bob from the Boardroom, your homosexuality is completely normal and natural. Among the animals, sexuality does not affect social dynamics and functioning, or make them vulnerable to attack, or impede the continuance of the species. It just is what it is: A normal part of existence. Period.
If you think the comparison between animals and humans is silly, think again. In an amicus curiae brief to the United States Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, (2003), the American Psychiatric Association and other groups argued that homosexuality was not a criminal act, citing natural homosexuality in animals as their basis of fact. The ruling in that case struck down the existing sodomy laws in 14 U.S. states as unconstitutional.
So, when you hear the old trope that homosexuality is not “normal,” remind yourself that as a fully-fledged member of this grand kingdom we call the Natural World, you are as normal as all the other animals. Then, song them this song . . .
Dragonflies in the reeds do it
Sentimental centipedes do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love.