It's very natural!

[Daniel]

There is an exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway that is causing something of a stir. See for yourself at the following link:

http://www.nhm.uio.no/againstnature/gayanimals.html

AGAINST NATURE?

- an exhibition on animal homosexuality


INTRODUCTION

On Thursday The Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, will open the first-ever museum exhibition dedicated to gay animals.

Today we know that homosexuality is a common and widespread phenomenon in the animal world. Not only short-lived sexual relationships, but even long-lasting partnerships; partnerships that may last a lifetime.

The exhibit puts on display a small selection among the more than 1500 species where homosexuality have been observed. This fascinating story of the animals' secret life is told by means of models, photos, texts and specimens. The visitor will be confronted with all sorts of creatures from tiny insects to enormous spermwhales.

How can we know that an animal is homosexual? How can homosexual behaviour be consistent with what we have learned about evolution and darwinism?

Sadly, most museums have no traditions for airing difficult, concealed, and possibly controversial questions. Homosexuality is certainly such a question. We feel confident that a greater understanding of how extensive and common this behaviour is among animals, will help to de-mystify homosexuality among people. - At least, we hope to reject the all too well known argument that homosexual behaviour is a crime against nature.

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Why haven’t we been told?

Homosexuality in animals has been known since Antiquity, but has only recently made it into mainstream science. The cause may be a lack of interest, distaste, ridicule or scientists fearing to lose their grants. The few scientists publishing on the topic, often made sure their own sexual preferences were known, directly or indirectly.

Some scientists have interpreted same-sex pairing as anything but sex. In a study of giraffes in Africa a researcher registered all cases where a male sniffed a female as “sexual interest” – while anal intercourse with ejaculation between males was registered as a form of ritualised fighting (“sparring”), despite the fact that 94% of all registered sexual activity in one area took place between males. Only recently has scientists started investigating homosexuality in animals in earnest.

A little knowledge is a good thing, isn't it?

[Mia14]

I applaud the museum in Norway for having the guts to show what other scientific institutions surely must know exists. It's probably all the better for them, though, because now people who would never have given a thought to Norway's museums are interested.

I'd love to see the exhibit, but I'm not planning on a trip like that anytime soon. Think of the stir an exhibit like that would cause if it were at the Museum of Natural History in New York City!

[Daniel]

A very good article on the exhibition.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...7347_1,00.html

Times2

Birds do it, bees do it . . .
Martin Fletcher

Our correspondent reports from Oslo on a new exhibition that appears to debunk the theory that homosexuality is an exclusively human preference
Is homosexuality natural?

It is not what you would expect to see when you take your children on a Sunday outing to the natural history museum: a giant photograph of one male giraffe humping another, or two whales sparring with giant penises. This, however, is Norway, where — for better or worse — the normal rules do not apply. Three years ago the Government told the country’s museums and libraries that they should do more to contribute to social debates and dare to tackle taboo subjects.
The results of that order are now coming through. One museum is staging an exhibition that debunks the national myth that every Norwegian was an heroic Resistance fighter in the Second World War. A second is planning an exhibition on Vidkun Quisling, the ultimate Norwegian collaborator. A third has an exhibition showing how badly Norway has treated Gypsies.

But the Natural History Museum in Oslo has gone one better. As America’s religious right fulminates against homosexuality, Europe embraces gay marriage, and leading homosexuals such as Martina Navratilova denounce scientists in Oregon for attempting to make gay sheep straight, the Naturhistorisk Museum is stepping squarely into the heart of a controversy that dates back to at least AD1120 when the Church Council of Nablus described homosexuality as a “sin against nature” .

And the first comment on the bottom of the first page of the article is great.

The point of this exhibition was not to justify homosexuality in humans - I don't see that it needs to be justified - but to respond to the claims of religious people that God instilled a "natural law" (see Thomas Aquinas), or inclinitation away from homosexuality which is transgressed in humans who "choose" to be gay. The idea therein is that only humans could trangress because (according to the religious) only humans have the power to disobey God (that is, to sin); thus anything which "animals" do cannot be sinful.
This exhibition merely takes that argument to its logical conclusion: if animal behaviour includes homosexuality (which it patently does), then homosexuality cannot be sinful. Brockman cannot be blamed if the homophobic cannot accept. What actually requires justification is not homosexuality, but hatred.

[superhippy7890]

but of course, the religous right might pull out the "Well animals eat there babies, is THAT right?" Oh well