by B.D. Bolin

Created on: February 12, 2008   Last Updated: January 19, 2009

The questions around what and how homosexuality occurs in the human animal have been swirling in the public arena since the Stonewall riots violently forced the reality of the gay underground into the mainstream media, which up until then had been content to hide, shivering in denial. Pundits on both sides howl at each other (and often over each other) that their side is right. But I think the real question should be, does it matter?

It is undeniable that homosexuality is a natural form of sexual expression. Many, if not most, mammals display some form of homosexual behavior. Some apes engage in casual bisexual encounters in the wild, both to seemingly show affection, and simply for pleasure. A pair of male vultures recently hatched and reared a baby in a Jerusalem zoo. Ostriches, flamingos, penguins, and dolphins have all been shown to choose life-mates of the same gender, and to exclusively engage in sex with their mate, even when opposite-gender animals show an interest in breeding. The hoary, old classic argument of right-wing idealogues that homosexuality is a choice, is no longer accepted by any reputable scientist or psychologist. A full quarter of homosexual couples are parenting children, and almost everyone knows or is realted to a gay person in their life. Gay people and their families are not going away, so the argument about what is natural is no longer valid. We have made it natural, by doing the most natural thing an animal species can do.

We have adapted.

We live in a world where we change our hair color, our breast size. We fix big noses and poochy tummies. We have laser hair removal and laser eye surgery. We tattoo and pierce. It seems to me that the natural behavior of the human being is to live our lives, however we see fit. It is our natural behavior, to challenge our natural impulses. We don't become homosexual because it is natural, homosexuality is natural because we do it. This Victorian, Christo-facist idea that our behavior is dictated by some arcane set of rules and regulations, set forth by a God that we are increasingly aware probably doesn't exist, has divorced us from the awareness that we are animals, and our expressions and patterns are nature by virtue of the fact that we do them. If monkeys swing in trees, that's nature, and if we dye our hair, or change our noses, or live in loving same-sex relationships, that's nature too.

So the next time a bleach-blond, make-up crusted right winger starts spouting at you about how you're not natural, just laugh, and be amazed at how much we have evolved.

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