Queer Animals in Nature

 Old abuse,  lobbed at us by the ignorant in Uganda. Homosexuality was so bad even animals were not homosexual. Animals could not be homosexual. Even His Excellency used to lobe that abuse our way.., gosh. [Growing up kuchu in Uganda, in Africa is not easy at all. Yes, we do have the scars to prove that.]

I remember, one day, we were with kuchu friends. One, a student at Makerere University. He told us of how a lecturer had broken out all the old tropes about homosexuality, being unnatural, being something that even animals couldn’t do. Apparently the student pushed back at the lecturer.., and as I listened to him, I commented that there was a page on Wikipedia about Homosexual Behaviour in Animals.
The student was floored. He hadn’t known. Accessing the page, he read it in literal tears, talking about schooling his lecturer. I reminded him that Wikipedia was hardly citable at university level, and steered him towards the references, but he was still ecstatic.
I empathised. In Uganda, growing up LGBTQ+, one might not really believe the stupidities thrown around about our sexuality, but the very fact that so many of our supposedly trusted sources and our peers passionately believe the stupidities…, that is daunting. We have to educate ourselves, and not all of us have real access to the internet, nor know the sites to trust.

I was reminded of that when I saw another article on queer animals.
Gay animals, lesbian animals. The phenomenon is not unusual in nature. Matter of fact, it is so common that we have to consider that it is only our ignorance of the fact that makes us so homophobic.

Oh yes, Gender switching animals?
They are also there, in nature. Nature is apparently broad and wondrous. Born ‘male’, they can switch to ‘female’, and vice versa. Sex fluidity is no big deal. It happens, it is common in some animals. Circumstances can determine a back and forth gender switching that is elegant in execution. Forget Museveni’s false fears for humanity survival because supposedly we Kuchus cannot procreate.

Nature doesn’t have a problem with diversity. In fact, nature thrives on diversity. It is part of the survival of species, that very diversity which our narrow minds seem to find abhorrent.

Ahem, those who claim the Creator made ‘Adam and Eve’, and not ‘Adam and Adam’, and only created them ‘male and female’ and also admitted heterosexual couples only in Noah’s Ark…, [We have heard a lot of ‘scriptural evidence’ for homophobia!]
We might have to agree that your god was not mighty enough to create the phenomenon of queer animals in nature, since they are a verifiable fact. Or it is how you think of your god, limiting his might by disavowing him having created the queer animals in nature…

The theological arguments are not my strength.
What I know, what has been proven again and again, is that Queer animals exist in nature. And, they are part of the survival of their species, sometimes actually switching sexes when it is necessary. Creation is indeed quite elegant.

 

gug