Ideology's impact on science is central to Bruce Bagemihl's Magnum opus on animal homosexuality Biological Exuberance . Although I have gone on to observe it myself, as a PhD student I flatly denied the possibility of non-reproductive sexuality in animals until a colleague showed a photograph he had taken of oral sex in macaques. Even then I wondered if it might be some clever camera trick. Bagemihl claims that ethology has systematically failed to report, dressed up as aberrant and otherwise theoretically marginalised a century of evidence showing that homosexuality is a common behaviour in a variety of species. In revising how we regard the natural world, Bagemihl's book may ultimately do as much for gay and lesbian rights as have several decades of social campaigning.
Animals strongly mould our perceptions of behaviour.
Gay vulture couple raise surrogate chicks by Eric Silver in The Independent , 2nd. A pair of homosexual griffon vultures at Jerusalem Zoo have lovingly reared two fledglings of their endangered species. The adult males, known as Dashik and Yehuda, built a nest last year and set up home together. In the spirit of gay liberation, they openly and energetically mated, but failed to produce a single egg. Fooled, the pair took turns to sit on it and warm it until it hatched again.