The 12 Gay Birthdays of Christmas : Part 1

My Christmas celebration this year centres on birthdays. Over this and the remaining Sundays in December I’ll be looking at 3 lgbt people whose birthday’s fall on significant dates in the Christmas calendar, whether this year or in the year they were born. Here, on this 2nd Sunday in Advent, are the first 3 of my “12 Gay Birthdays of Christmas”.

Matthew Shepard (1976-1998)

(born on 1^st December, which this year is the 1^st Sunday in Advent).

Matthew Shepard has become recognised worldwide as pivotal in the fight against hate crime and homophobic attack. I’m sure a lot of you know Matthew’s story, but it is worth remembering again in this 15^th anniversary year of his death. Matthew was a student at the University of Wyoming majoring in political science. On 6 October 1998 he met 2 men who offered to drive him home, but instead they drove him to a remote field near the town of Laramie and proceeded to rob and beat him. They tortured Matthew mercilessly and tied him to a fence and left him there. Matthew was barely alive when he was discovered the next day and was rushed to hospital, but he died of his injuries 5 days later. The incident hit the headlines across America, and the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church had the affront to mount an anti-gay protest at Matthew’s funeral. The 2 murderers were given double life sentences each. At the time there were no laws dealing with this sort of crime committed on the basis of sexual orientation. Several attempts to pass a new law failed in several successive US administrations. Finally, President Obama signed what is often referred to as The Matthew Shepard Act (or The Shepard/Byrd Act which also recognises the sacrifice of James Byrd jr., who was killed in a race hate attack, also in 1998) on 28 October 2009. The legacy of Matthew’s death and the fight against hate crime has resulted in many people, including celebrities, keeping his name alive. Matthew’s mother Judy is now a leading advocate and campaigner for lgbt rights and the fight against hate crime. She was present when Obama signed the Shepard/Byrd Act.

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978)

(born on 5^th December, the feast day of St. Nicholas, the Christmas present-giver and origin of Santa Claus).

This is something of a prelude to next year’s theme of music. January will feature some musicologists and music historians. Even though Sylvia Townsend Warner is best known as a novelist and poet she was known in her earlier years as an expert on Medieval and Tudor music. In fact, she had hoped to study composition in Vienna under Arnold Schoenberg. Unfortunately, the start of the First World War prevented her from pursuing this career path. Instead she began to work in a munitions factory. She did continue her musical interests, however, by joining a committee that was researching 16^th and 17^th century music. The end product of this was the 10-volume “Tudor Church Music”, published between 1922 and 1929. During this time Sylvia began writing poetry and short stories. It was also the period when she met her life partner Valentine Acland, another female poet, and they spent the rest of their lives together. Sylvia’s musical career was finally abandoned once her poetry and novels were published, though she often included musical themes or used her musical knowledge in some of her work, most notably in her novel “The Corner That Held Them” about 14^th century monastic life.

Norman Douglas (1868-1952)

(born on 8^th December, which this year is the 2^nd Sunday in Advent).

Norman Douglas was an aristocratic, half-Scottish, half-German writer and novelist whose indiscretions led to him moving all around Europe. With his European family background it was perhaps natural that he write about the many places he visited. His talent for combining observation, anecdote and light-heartedness made his travel books written in the pre-First World War years very popular. However much he travelled he eventually found a home for himself and his publisher and “companion”, Giuseppe Orioli, on Capri. The “indiscretions” I mentioned almost began at school, which he hated. He told his mother that if he wasn’t removed he’d arrange to be expelled for sexual malpractice! In Russia while working for the British diplomatic service Norman was placed “on leave”. At the time he had 3 Russian mistresses on the go and got one of them pregnant and her family (allegedly related to the Romanovs) weren’t too  happy. Back in the UK he married his cousin (who was 2 months pregnant) and had 2 sons, but the marriage ended in divorce after he discovered his wife was having an affair. Norman got custody of his sons but his ex-wife tried to have him charged with paedophilia, and failed. In 1916, however, Norman was accused of sexual offences against a 16 year old boy. He denied the charge saying he only kissed him and gave him some cake and a shilling. But when another incident involving 2 younger boys came to light Norman decided to jump bail and head out of England. Away from all this (and a couple of other scandals involving children) Norman was friends with a lot of influential writers of the period, including D. H. Lawrence and W. Somerset Maugham. His novels often contain elements of moral questioning, and he described his own book of limericks, published in 1928, as “one of the filthiest books in the English language”. He died at his home on Capri in 1952.

Flower Power - A Botanical HIV Defender

Back in August I wrote an article about the medicinal uses of plants I had included in my Flower Power series. Today is another one, and it also links in with one I wrote in May.

There have been many drugs and treatments for HIV that have been derived from plant products. One which has been heralded as a possible cure is the drug prostratin. It’s most important characteristic is that it can activate viruses that are hiding dormant and undetectable within human cells. That might not sound very healthy for the patient – activating viruses? But current HIV drug cocktails don’t affect dormant cells, so by activating them with prostratin the drugs can kill them. That means HIV has nowhere to hide.

Protratin’s story from discovery to possible HIV drug involves a missionary, a South Pacific war goddess, and exclusive national sovereignty over a gene.

In 1984 a botany professor from Brigham Young University called Paul Cox went to Samoa where he had previously been as a missionary during college. There he began to look into the relationship between plants and the indigenous culture, what is called ethnobotany. In particular Cox was interested in the use of plants in medicine.

In the Samoan rain forest Cox worked closely with the native healers in the village of Falealupo. One natural remedy for illness ranging from incontinence to hepatitis was an infusion made from the bark of the mamala plant (botanical name Homolanthus nutans). Realising it’s potential in producing antiviral drugs Cox sent samples to the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, USA.

In 1991 the Institute succeeded in isolating prostratin. Although prostratin was not unknown to chemistry its antiviral properties were discovered through research on Cox’s plant specimens.

Cox believed that the mamala plant could be vital in the fight against AIDS. But there was a cloud on the horizon in the shape of the Samoan government. Their educational policy insisted that Falealupo village must build its own school or face the expulsion of all its children from the state education system. The village couldn’t possibly raise the money needed so sold the logging right to their part of the rain forest. The loggers began to move in and put the very existence of the mamala palnt in jeopardy.

And this is where Nafanua, the Samoan war goddess makes an appearance. Paul Cox decided to but back the logging rights to protest the forest. To do this he sold his home in Utah and asked for donations. The Falealupo chiefs agreed to Cox’s plan and their school was built and the forest saved. One unexpected result for Cox was that the chiefs gave him the name of their war goddess in gratitude.

With the natural habitat of the mamala plant saved “Nafanua” Paul Cox could continue research on the plant. After lots of negotiation Cox managed to arrange for the Samoan government to receive 20% of the profits from any drug produced from mamala plants, money which would help to sustain plantations and benefit the Falealupo village.

The potential of finding an effective defence against HIV through prostratin caught the attention of the chemist who is working on the synthesis of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin, also originally found in a plant. Professor Jay Keasling is developing methods of inserting the genes of plant-derived drugs into bacteria to produce mini-drug factories.

In 2004 Jay Keasling, Paul Cox and the Samoan government signed an agreement which recognised Samoa’s right to ownership of the prostratin gene sequence, since it was obtained from a Samoan plant. With the profits from any drug produced by the mamala plant, the 50% profits from any gene-derived prostratin drug will also go to Samoan and the villagers of Falealupo.

Those native doctors who first worked with Cox way back in the 1980s helped in the early research and, who knows, in years to come people will be able to claim that their HIV was cured with the help of jungle bark, and a Samoan war goddess.

The HIV Seekers and Hunters

Inspired by the 2012 POZ 100 list mentioned on 1^st December here is a brief look at some people, lgbt and straight, who have been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research or involvement in early working groups and commissions – the HIV Seekers and Hunters.

I’ll begin with Dr. Frank Lilly (1930-1995). During the first years of the AIDS epidemic reaction from governments was slow. No-one had experienced anything like it before and politicians didn’t know how to react. Eventually, in the USA where the disease was most prevalent, the Reagan administration set up the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic in 1987. It’s purpose was to gather information from around the country, asses the scale of the disease, come up with possible strategies on how to cope with it, and decide how much money the whole fight against AIDS was likely to cost.

Of the 13 members of the commission the one who attracted the most criticism was Dr. Lilly. He was the only gay person on the commission and was a professor in the genetics department at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Many people objected to having a gay man on the commission, and it is said that his inclusion was due to pressure from the President’s wife. The official statements from the White House tried to counter the criticism by reminding people that Dr. Lilly’s expertise in retroviruses similar to HIV was the reason he was included.

When the commission made it’s final deliberations in 1988 Frank Lilly was one of the commission members who called for new anti-discrimination legislation to be introduced into the private sector aimed at protecting people with HIV/AIDS.

While commissions were being established around the world the search for the causes and cures for HIV/AIDS was also growing. One of the first tasks was to discover how and why HIV infects cells. One woman who was instrumental in helping to resolve this never knew how important she would be to medical science – and probably wouldn’t have consented to it.

Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in 1951. Some cells from her tumour was removed during a routine examination (in those bygone days the patient’s consent wasn’t required) and studied. These cells were given the designation HeLa (after Henrietta’s name) and they showed the remarkable ability to keep growing and dividing, the first human cells (albeit cancerous) ever that stayed alive in laboratory conditions. Samples of the HeLa cells were sent around the world and became the basis of modern tissue culture research. Using these cells scientists have made major advances in the treatment of polio, cancer, leukaemia, herpes, Parkinson’s disease, flu, and many other illnesses, and led to the technology which produced the first test tube baby.

In the mid-1980s molecular biologist Richard Axel successfully infected some HeLa cells with HIV, which only shortly beforehand had been identified as the cause of AIDS. Studying this infection Axel was able to produce vital information about how HIV works.

One of the other important discoveries made in the early years was the possible origins of HIV in a similar version found in primates – the simian immuno-deficiency virus, or SIV. One of the HIV Seekers in this field carried out his work only a mile from where I live, at the Queen’s Medical Centre and University of Nottingham.

Dr. Paul Sharp is a genetic genealogist – he traces the ancestry of viruses by looking at their DNA. In 1998 he published his first findings into the origin of HIV. Early research comparing HIV with SIV suggested that they both evolved from an ancestral virus some 200 years ago. Further research by Dr. Sharp into SIV pushed that date back to a million years ago. Once infected the SIV gradually evolved in humans into HIV. Paul’s research continued and other evidence placed the first humans to be infected with SIV lived in the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Guinea. Exactly how those humans became infected will remain a matter of theory.

A lot more research has been done since then by other scientists. Without knowing the origin and evolution of HIV and SIV there would be less understanding of how they operate. Paul Sharp began his researches soon after DNA sequencing became possible. In 2009 a team from the University of North Carolina succeeded in decoding HIV’s entire genome which opened the door a little further into how it works.

The work of the North Carolina team, led by chemistry professor Kevin Weeks, means that we can actually alter parts of the HIV genome to see what effect it has on the virus. HIV’s method of “hacking” into human DNA to duplicate itself could be stopped by producing a genetically modified vaccine.

Many thousands of scientists, doctors and researchers have joined the ranks of the HIV Seekers and Hunters over the decades, and their work in finding treatments, drugs, cures and methods of eliminating HIV will stand out as milestones in the history of medical science. Its just a pity I don’t have room to mention more of them.

World AIDS Day

To round off my year of science, technology and Ologies of the Month I’m looking at virology and concentrating on one specific virus which has affected the lgbt community, and continues to affect, more than any other in the past 30 years or more – HIV and AIDS.

While it would be easy and concentrate throughout December on the fears and the loss created by both HIV and AIDS it can also provide hope and inspiration to those who have these illnesses.

At this time of year many organisations, publications and websites compile lists of people they consider to have made the biggest impact in the previous 12 months. The lgbt community is no stranger to this idea, with Out magazine’s annual “Out 100” and the Pink List produced by the “Independent on Sunday”. There’s also “POZ” magazine’s “POZ 100”. This is an annual life of people whose contributions to HIV/AIDS research or activism has been outstanding, not only in the previous 12 months but sometimes over a number of years. Last year’s POZ 100 is my inspiration for my series of HIV/AIDS articles. This year’s POZ 100 can be found here.

Using the sections on the 2012 POZ list – Seekers, Hunters, Defenders and Soldiers – I’ve looked for people who are working in the specific fields given and selected a handful of people, past and present, to give a representative view of the group. Not all of the people are lgbt, and not all of them are obvious choices. I want to provide as wide a variety of people as possible.

The word AIDS has acquired the same reputation as that of cancer when it comes to being diagnosed, even more so in the epidemic years of the 1980s when so many AIDS-related deaths were being recorded. The story behind the creation of the name AIDS involves one of the earliest unsung heroes of AIDS research.

Here’s something to ponder on. Would the fight against AIDS have become such a major part of world history if it hadn’t occurred during the lifetimes of the most influential gay activists in the 1980s? Would there have been the same response to AIDS had it appeared before the Stonewall Riots of 1969? Society’s attitudes to the gay community between 1969 and 1982 had changed a lot. There was still a lot of bigotry and homophobia among the Establishment and governments, but the Gay Rights movement of the 1970s meant that some people who had foot-holds in the Establishment were willing to come out as gay, even if it meant losing their job. Would they have been prepared to come out voluntarily if they had the same careers before 1969?

One person among many who straddled the period from Gay Rights to AIDS activism, and had the added bonus of having a doctorate in biology, biochemistry and genetics, was Bruce Voeller (1934-1994).

Before the Stonewall Riots Bruce Voeller was a married father of 3 children, and an assistant Professor of Biology at the Rockefeller Institute. He was 29. He recognised his homosexuality and was divorced from his wife in 1971. His activism began immediately after he was refused access to his children. Bruce took his case to the US Supreme Court. It wasn’t until 1974 that he succeeded – on condition that his children never met any of Bruce’s partners or that he speaks of his activism to his children.

In 1969 Bruce co-founded the Gay Activists Alliance but left in 1973 over differences in campaign strategies and methods. He resigned his professorship at Rockefeller to co-found the National Gay (later Lesbian and Gay) Task Force. With the Task Force he helped to arrange the first White House meeting between the President and gay activist leaders in 1977.

Bruce left the Task Force in 1978 to co-found with his partner the Mariposa Education and Research Foundation, returning to his scientific roots. Mariposa’s purpose was to study homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). This meant that when the AIDS crisis emerged after 1980 Bruce was one of the best-informed experts around with any knowledge of how AIDS could spread so quickly.

It was Bruce Voeller more than anyone else, through his research into STDs, who realised that AIDS wasn’t a “gay disease”. At the time the disease was only associated with gay men and, consequently, was called Gay-Related Immuno-Deficiency (GRID). Bruce saw GRID as an inaccurate name and because some non-gay or sexually-transmitted cases were appearing he encouraged the use of the name Acquired Immuno-Deficieny Syndrome (AIDS) instead, reflecting it’s non-gender-specific and no-sexual nature.

At a meeting in Washington DC on 27^th July 1982 between the Centre for Disease Control, gay community leaders, doctors, and federal officials the name AIDS was officially adopted in place of GRID.

Bruce continued to research into AIDS, also writing many articles and appearing before congressional hearings up to the time when he himself could no longer do so because of his own AIDS-related illnesses. He died in 1994.

Bruce Voeller is well-known in AIDS research and activist circles but little-known outside. Just as Alan Turing’s life emerged out of the shadows in recent years, Bruce’s life should be equally recognised world-wide for his part in lgbt heritage. 

The Gallae - Ancient and Modern : Part 2 - Modern

In this second article on the religious movement centred on the ancient Mother Goddess Cybele and her transsexual priests we look at its modern reinterpretation was practised today in parts of the trans community.

As I mentioned last time, established religions evolve over centuries, but the worship of Cybele was outlawed in the Roman Empire when Christianity became the official state religion. To worship Cybele today exactly as the ancients did would not truly represent the spiritual needs of the modern transgender community, and probably also include several  practices which are illegal!

The current status of Cybele and Gallae worshippers is small compared to that of other lgbt faiths. It can be argued that it may not exist at all if it hadn’t been for the internet. What was known about the ancient cult was restricted to academic publications and a few historical journals. With the explosion of information created by the internet and worldwide web this knowledge of Cybele became available to everyone, and it came at the right time.

In the 1990s several feminists and transgender people began their own research into ancient religions, beliefs and cults that had some affinity with their modern lifestyles. In the world of the Modern Gallae the women credited with being the founders of the revival of Cybele include Laura Lansberry (1939-2002) and Laura Seabook (b.1957).

Laura Seabrook encountered Cybele and the Gallae for an art project on the Tarot card deck during her studies at Newcastle University, New South Wales, Australia. From then she became more involved in the Gallae movement and set up a website which features many comic strips and artwork on gallae and transgender issues. Recently Laura became the custodian of the Transgender Day of Remembrance Webcomic Project.

Perhaps the most significant centre of the Modern Gallae movement is the Maetreum of Cybele Magna Mater in the Catskill Mountains, New York State. I say this because the sisterhood there established the first Phrygianum, a convent housing the priestesses. The ancient Gallae lived in Phrygianums/Phrygiana, and these were all destroyed when the Roman Empire adopted Christianity. This made the Phrygianum in New York the first one to be established in over 1500 years.

The Catskill Phryiganum was established in 2003 though the priestesses held their first public ritual on 24^th March (the old New Year’s Eve) 1999. Since then it has become the focus of a small group of world-wide priestesses, including Laura Seabrook in Australia.

One problem with a small religious group that doesn’t belong to an established faith is that the authorities may not recognise the spiritual nature of its places of worship. This has been the case with the Catskill Phrygianum.

Several years ago the Catskill Gallae applied to their local authority to obtain tax exemption of the Phrygianum because of it’s use as a place of worship. The authorities turned them down on the grounds that not all of the property was for religious use, and because several of the Gallae lived there, making it a residential property. The Gallae appealed, and earlier this year their attempt to get tax exemption failed again. No doubt the battle will go on for a lot longer.

There are other small groups of Modern Gallae around the world, some of whom are sole worshippers with no physical access to any established convent because of distance. Again, this is where the internet provides vital support and contact.

To end this look at the Modern Gallae her is one flag designed by the faith by Laura Seabrook. This is a black flag with the Rainbow Pride colours on a central disc. A black pentagram is placed in the centre, and in the centre of that is the white symbol of the Gallae. This flag was designed in 1997. In 2006 Laura modified  the design by removing the gallae symbol. In this form it was first displayed in public at the 2006 Sydney Mardi Gras on the Bi-Bachanalia float. Laura interprets the design as representing the intersection of Queer and Neo-Pagan communities, and is intended as the general flag of Queer Paganism.

 

Queer Achievements - Pelican Briefs

[Achievement – the name given in heraldry to the full pictorial representation of a coat of arms.]

Two for the price of one today.

One thing I love about heraldry is its use of puns. The animal world has always provided heraldry with a wide-ranging source of these puns. In medieval days when few people could read the only way to remember or recognise whose coat of arms you were looking at was by puns on the owner’s name. For instance, many families called Lyon have lions in their coats of arms.

Today I’m presenting 2 different lgbt achievements using a pun based on a bird – the pelican. In both of these you can see the heraldic pelican. Medieval Christian legend says that the pelican fed its young by pecking at its breast until it bled. The bird is pictured like this in many manuscripts, stained glass windows and the like. In this form it is referred to as a “pelican in her piety”.

The Queer Achievement above belongs to Lt. Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton (1840-1870). The 3 pelicans on his shield are puns on the name Pelham. Arthur’s father was the Duke of Newcastle, the owner of Nottingham Castle, and you can still see the family coat of arms carved over the castle gatehouse today. In 1865 Arthur was elected MP for Newark just up the road from Nottingham. At the time he was in a relationship with a stage female impersonator called Ernest Boulton, who often styled himself Lady Stella Clinton. Unfortunately, Ernest also often wore female attire in public (an offence at the time) and was arrested. Before the trial love letters between Ernest and Arthur were found. Arthur was called to give evidence against Ernest, and rather than face this prospect Arthur is said to have committed suicide.

Lord Arthur’s paternal ancestry is the Clinton family. Their coat of arms can be seen in the 1^st and 4^th quarters of the shield. It was the marriage in 1717 of Arthur’s ancestor the 7^th Earl of Lincoln to the heiress Lucy Pelham which brought the name and arms into the family.

The remaining quarter on the shield, the white belt buckles, also belongs to the Pelhams. Legend says that this is an “augmentation of honour”, as it is known, granted personally by the king in recognition of some great service. The specific service here was performed at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 by Sir John Pelham, who was one of the captors of the king of France. The buckles may represent the French king’s sword belt given in surrender. While this legend has been in the family for generations, it’s use in heraldry can’t be traced that far back, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The Pelham motto “Vincit Amor Patriae” means “The love of my country prevails”.

The Queer Achievement below belongs to a more recent member of the lgbt community, Julia Pell (1953-2006). Again, you can see the pelican being used as a pun on the family name. In the UK her arms would be shown on a diamond-shaped lozenge with a bow, but American arms don’t show any sexual differentiation. This is another coat of arms which dates back to the medieval period, and Julia’s male-line ancestry goes back over 600 years to the county of Lincolnshire. Her distinguished ancestry begins with her father Claiborne Pell, a Rhode Island Senator.

Julia was a civil rights activist and served on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and as President of the board of the Rhode Island Alliance for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights.

The Pell crest shown here is one of several variations I’ve found. Each is an interpretation of the official description (the blazon). Sometimes the garland is shown as if it encircles the top of the helmet. Sometimes the pelican stands directly in front of the erect garland. My interpretation is based on the oldest depictions. One element missing from Julia’s coat of arms is the motto. I can’t find one for the Pell family. This isn’t unusual, as motto’s aren’t compulsory.

In one of those quirks of history that brings 2 apparently unconnected people together, Lord Arthur and Julia have more in common than pelicans.

Julia’s ancestor John Pell (1610-1685) inherited a large estate next to the modern-day Bronx area called the manor of Pelham and the Pells lived there for several generations. The Pell coat of arms is still seen in Pelham today. The manor was given that name by the aforesaid John Pell’s uncle Thomas, the first Pell to emigrate to America. Thomas named the manor after his childhood tutor Pelham Burton, and Pelham Burton’s great-grandfather was Sir William Pelham, the direct ancestor of Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton. It’s a small world.

Birds Do It, Bees Do It ...

I don’t think Cole Porter realised when he wrote the song which contains the lyrics in the above title that he might be saying something that has a grain of truth in it in respect of his own sexuality. But it couldn’t be more perfect, because it’s back to the “Nature or Nurture” debate on homosexuality today. The biggest evidence for the “Nature” side comes from the animal world.

The Wikipedia entry “Homosexual behaviour in animals” gives a long list of a whole variety of animal species where some form of same-sex activity has been recorded. But, as that article points out, there is an intellectual difference in the homosexual behaviour of humans and animals. We humans have also established a distinct identity and community based around same-sex attraction, but animals display no capacity to form such communities. To the animal world there is no understanding that what they’re doing in any different to any others in their species – it is part of their natural sexual “repertoire”.

Among the scientific research on the subject there is no agreement on the universal causes or reasons for homosexuality in animals. Each species may have different causes. Some scientists say it is due to hormones in individual animals rather than present across the whole species, while other scientists have found no difference in hormonal levels between members of a different species which displays such homosexual behaviour.

The Wikipedia article mentions the particular instances of same sex activity in domesticated sheep, where “homosexual” rams refuse to mate with ewes. If you’ve got a good memory and have followed my blog for a long time you may remember an early “Star Gayzing” article which I published in relation to the constellation of Aries the Ram on this subject.

Going back to Cole Porter’s song, just how much of his lyrics can be applied to homosexual behaviour in the animal kingdom? Do birds it? Do bees do it? Do even educated fleas do it?

The instances of homosexual behaviour in birds is well documented. In fact one pair of birds acquired a kind of celebrity status as a same-sex couple for several years. They’re a couple of penguins called Roy and Silo. They weren’t the first male penguin couple, but their story went on to create a nationwide controversy.

In 1998 these two penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York began showing sings of behaviour towards each other that was usually displayed by mating pairs. It wasn’t long before they had established a nest together and had started trying to hatch a stone. Zoo-keepers substituted an egg from an “overlaid” nest for the stone and Roy and Silo succeeded in hatching it. The chick was named Tango.

This penguin family became a tourist attraction, and in 2005 their story was turned into a children’s book called “And Tango Makes Three” by gay couple Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. While stories of evil and murder are accepted in the children’s sections of American libraries (in books like “Oliver Twist” or “Harry Potter”), the story of two male penguins raising a chick created a big stir, with calls for it to be banned in many states. In fact, between 2006 and 2010 it was the most controversial book in US libraries (or second most, in 2009). Despite this, “And Tango Makes Three” has won several awards.

So birds do it. What about bees? There’s no specific research into the sexuality of bees, but there’s plenty with regards to other insects. Research into damsel flies and dragonflies has shown evidence of same-sex activity based on the pincer marks made by males on females during mating. Up to 80% of males in these species show mating-related pincer marks. Fruit flies show genetic evidence for homosexual behaviour.

Even educated fleas do it, so Cole Porter wrote. Perhaps he should have written “even educated bed bugs do it”. The males of the species Cinex lecturarius are sexually attracted to others in their species which have recently fed, this includes male bed bugs as well. Evolution’s answer to this (implying they did it long before humans invented beds!) is for the males to produce pheromones to put off other males – they generate such a foul odour that it puts other males off (I bet we’ve all experience much a similar thing ourselves!).

“Let’s do it, let’s fall in love” with the idea that homosexuality wasn’t invented by gay men and it isn’t perverted. Until society accepts that same-sex attraction occurs in animal species then we can’t say that the “Nature or Nurture” debate will ever be resolved.