How Do Homosexual Animals Evolve?

-Metablade- · Post by **-Metablade-** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:30 pm

The Gay Animal Kingdom: The effeminate sheep & other problems with Darwinian sexual selection.

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/0 ... ge=all&p=y

AAAhmed46 · Post by **AAAhmed46** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:10 pm

Do they go for butt like human homosexuals? Or do they merely go for other males and have no idea what to do with them?

IJ · Post by IJ » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:39 pm

Check out the article--it goes into plenty of detail. Just from that, if not from a little imagination, you can pick up that life doesn't require a "butt or nothing" dichotomy.

Here's what confuses me (and I think this is because its not a scientific article):

"It's even harder to imagine how traits that are good for the group get passed on by individuals."

Wow, maybe I should go into evolutionary biology if its this easy: groundhog risks his or her life to sound the alarm that a predator approaches, by drawing attention to him or herself. He or she is more likely to get eaten and fail to reproduce, but he or she preserves shared genes in relatives who are more likely to survive in a cooperative society. Ants, afterall, labor their whole lives for the benefit of their queen, to whom they are daughters with shared genes. And in a more complex society, mates can select out qualities that they appreciate. Some may be brutish but others may reflect characteristics that directly or indirectly suggest behaviors beneficial to the group. For example, maybe a nice guy who gives to charity could be a winner even if the charity is done anonymously, because the mate can recognize the good boys and the bad. That's not so hard to imagine...

AAAhmed46 · Post by **AAAhmed46** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:16 pm

So where do homosexual ANIMALS put it? Do they know where?

benzocaine · Post by **benzocaine** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:30 pm

So where do homosexual ANIMALS put it? Do they know where?

It's clear in the article that they do any number of activities that we would call "Gay". Apparently there is no real clear boundary between gay and straight in the wild.. they just do what they do... what they feel it seems.

IJ · Post by IJ » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:09 pm

You appear to be fixated on a particular type of intimacy that is (stereotypically) prominent in the minds of heterosexual males. I suggest that instead of further inquiries here, you find yourself a nice lesbian couple and spend ten minutes at a Starbucks or pool hall or something having your horizons conversationally broadened

AAAhmed46 · Post by **AAAhmed46** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:36 pm

Hey were humans, we have fingers and thumbs.

And creativity.

Alot of animals dont.

So what do they do?

EDIT:
And yeah i know two bi-sexual girl, and one bi-sexual guy.

Never asked about thier sex lives though.

Have yet to meet someone who is just gay.

-Metablade- · Post by **-Metablade-** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:50 pm

AAAhmed46 wrote:
Have yet to meet someone who is just gay.

A still controversial but widely accepted percentage is that 10-15% of the population is gay.
Therefore, the chances are astronomically high that you have met and quite possibly unknowingly are friends with:

: A Gay Person.

-Enjoy.

Panther · Post by **Panther** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:55 am

I know a lot of people who are happy...

Since I'm not going to be intimate with any of them, I don't care what they do in the privacy of their boudoir... and I especially don't think the "gubermint" has any business knowing what anyone does in the privacy of their bedroom. In fact, I could care less if you want to have a secular marriage with your vacuum cleaner or pet python or leave all of your possessions to your cat or have multiple spouses (one is plenty for me, but if you want to go through a divorce with a number of different spouses, good for you

)... even though that's an important individual decision, it's just unimportant to me.

Sooooo... I know lots of people who are happy... and quite a number who aren't.

IJ · Post by IJ » Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:58 pm

Not to discount the perception that we're poised to take over the earth or anything, but the 10% generally comes from Kinsey's work, which was derived from a skewed population. In fact, it's very hard to get a representative sample to respond to a survey about sexuality. Or to get them to respond honestly. More recent surveys I've seen have put the number at about 1-2% "exclusive" same sexers. However, we then run into serious problems with definitions... what counts? Behavior? Self-labeling? How much of what makes you hetero or homo or bi? What's the statute of limitations? What counts as "activity?" Who decides? What about people who have serious issues with their feelings and come off as rabidly hetero--like the neighbor in American Beauty? Just as with race, in the end, labels are for soup cans, and very few of us are 100% anything. Just what we all are will be impossible to know until there's a society free of judgment--don't hold your breath.