• Question: Is it true that all animals can be homosexual?

    Asked by yourmum to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi yourmum I have heard this too actually, but no idea if it’s true -sorry! Calling biologists…Stephen??

    • Photo: Stephen Curry

      Stephen Curry answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      To be terribly, terribly pedantic – no-one knows.

      it is certainly true that some animals engage in homosexual behaviour but that is a far cry from claiming that all do, especially when we probably haven’t yet discovered all the species on earth.

      I think it takes a long time to study animal behaviour so it may be a while before the final answer is in. I have heard reports of homosexual activity among birds and mammals (though am struggling to recall a specific example).

      Not heard of it among fish or insects though…

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I don’t know about this. There is a big list of animals showing homosexual behaviour on wikipedia, but most of the references given don’t look very scientific to me. I think people have been interested in this because of political debate about whether homosexuality is driven by nature (genetics) or nurture (environment and culture). Because of this some of the reporting (especially in non-scientific media) may be biased one way or the other. I think the best way to look at this would be to see whether there are differences in human heterosexual and homosexual brains and genes, rather than looking at animals. Most complex behaviours (IMHO) will have genetic and environmental influences, and I would be surprised if human sexuality were not the same.

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