• Question: "homosexuality is found in over 450 species. homophobia is only found in one. which one seems unnatural now?" why is it we become this way, and yet animals, have no problem against it i dont, but i was wondering you views on this (p.s kelly osborn tweeted the part in speech marks"

    Asked by xanthenims to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hmm, I think on the whole Kelly Osborn is right, strangely with exception of chimpanzees – apparently, male chimpanzees get really upset if they witness female-femal sexual contact.

      I think humans get unreasonably upset at homosexuality partly because of their adherence to norms. Humans get upset when people are different than the majority – they are also prejudices against boys who like dolls, people who wear unusual clothes, people don’t believe what others do, and so on.
      Having said that, I suspect there is some evolutionary side to this as well – Ed, do you know anything about this?

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I agree with what Vera said actually, I think it has a lot to do with disliking things that are out of the ordinary. You get hatred for other groups of people who are not in the majority – I will put myself in one of those groups, being an ’emo’ when I was in school/college singled me out for a fair bit of abuse over it. I have no idea why this is the case though, what it is about minorities that people do not like.

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      To be a bit of a cynic, how do we know whether other animals dislike homosexuality or not?

      Although I am interested in the evolution of morality, why we should care about others’ sexuality really baffles me. I just can’t see any logical or adaptive reason why we should care what two people of the same sex do in their own bedrooms!

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I think some people are just afraid of what they don’t understand. Homosexuality used to be a really taboo subject – maybe in the UK due to the influences of the church and how people interpretted the bible. However, I think homosexuality is becoming more accepted in today’s society as people are becoming more knowledgable.

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      The only evolutionarily adaptive purpose I can think of for homophobia is that people might have been concerned about it’s effect on the social dynamic of the group. But then people tend not to react with such bile and fury to others being friends, so I’m not sure about this as an explanation.

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