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5 Animals that Display Homosexual Behavior
Over 1,500 species have been found to engage in same-sex sexual encounters
As a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I’ve always been unnerved when people claim that anything deviating from heterosexuality is “unnatural.”
Sometimes it’s bigots arguing that “being gay is a choice.” Other times it’s science-minded people who feel the need to dismiss anything that doesn’t have a “clear evolutionary purpose.” Whether their reasoning is well-intentioned or not, they’re wrong — far from being “unnatural,” homosexuality is found in nearly every corner of the animal kingdom. It’s been found in some of our closest animal relatives, and in some of our most distant non-relations, like insects, fish, and birds.
If homosexuality were unnatural — some kind of evolutionary glitch or anomaly — it wouldn’t be readily observable in so many species. Homosexual behavior has been documented in around 1,500 species, and the number is expected to grow as scientists continue to look for these behaviors more intentionally.
1. Bonobos
Bonobos and humans share around 98.7% of their DNA, making bonobos as closely related to humans as chimpanzees. And, like humans, bonobos are sexually diverse creatures.
