"I'll wait for you!"

The Toronto Zoo recently came under fire for separating two gay African penguins. According to Queerty.com, penguins Buddy and Pedro display typical courtship behaviors: grooming each other, swimming together and making mating noises at each other.

But the zookeepers want to use the penguins’ “top notch” genes to save their species from extinction. The keepers defended their actions saying Pedro and Buddy don’t necessarily have sex — as if to suggest “they aren’t gay because they don’t have gay sex.”

The zoo’s decision is morally and logically flawed. I wouldn’t go as calling the zookeepers gay-haters — or their breeding program “a patriarchal sex-trade industry” as Queerty.Com called it. I simply doubt they should or even can make gay penguins go straight.

How would they do it? Brainwash the penguins at one of those scary “ex-gay” camps?

Whatever their plan, the keepers are ignoring one simple truth. Throughout the animal kingdom, homosexuality is very common and natural.

Before going on, I must admit my own ignorance. Before researching this, I just figured homosexuality was only common in humans. Indeed this is a dangerous myth that wrongly makes homosexuality seem like “a sin against nature.”

In reality, scientists observe homosexuality in thousands of species. In the case of animals like bonobo apes, their entire species is bisexual. As for our penguin friends, colonies have been seen where as many as 10 per cent of pairs are gay.

Not surprisingly, a Fox News report on the subject wonders “why evolution hasn’t eliminated [homosexuality] from the gene pool since it doesn’t lead to reproduction.” But this reasoning really underestimates how sophisticated animals are. Some people assume an animal’s only motive is to spread its genes and die — the same way fundamentalists watching Fox live to populate god’s country.

But not every sexual act has a reproductive function — this holds true with humans and non-humans alike. This fact has been kept quiet though. I took an intro bio class called “The Diversity of Life” and I don’t remember any talk of gay animals. And seeing all the news coverage garnered by two gay penguins, it seems people simply didn’t realize how queer the animal kingdom is.

It’s hardly abnormal that Pedro and Buddy are gay. The fact is gay penguins have been observed mating for life, refusing to pair with females even when coaxed by zookeepers to do so. Famously, two male penguins at Central Park zoo raised a young penguin together. They even inspired a children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, but big surprise, it was banned by some American schools for having gay-friendly themes.

The Toronto Zoo is admittedly facing a tough situation. It’s definitely a zoo’s responsibility to help conserve species and breeding programs undoubtedly aid conservation. But zoos have an even bigger responsibility — giving animals a home that’s as natural as the one they would find in the wild.

If Pedro and Buddy were in the wild, nothing would interfere with their staying together and not mating with females. Their life in the zoo should be no different. To separate them is to try redesigning nature — which simply won’t work. It’s the same reason laws against homosexuality won’t alter a person’s nature.

As soon as people admit that being gay is biologically normal, it will be harder justifying the persecution of queer individuals — whether they’re human, penguin or otherwise.

The sexual diversity in nature has already aided the gay rights movement. In 2003, “Homosexuality in animals” was discussed in a U.S. Supreme Court case that removed Sodomy Laws from 14 states.

The problem remains that while humans can defend their sexual rights in court, penguins obviously can’t. And given that humans are just another animal on this planet, it’s unfair to deny penguins the sexual liberties we want for ourselves.

—
Graphic: Brianna Whitmore/The Sheaf