Lucia

de Vernai

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May 5, 2008

Gay Penguins and the Progressive Agenda

We should have known that using Mother Nature for political gains would come back to haunt us.

But when the gay marriage debate was sweeping states from coast to coast, well-meaning liberals were willing to point to any evidence that homosexuality is natural. Many pointed to occurrences of same-sex relations among animals as proof that it’s not a social, psychological or genetic disorder.

That’s why Wendell and Cass, African black-footed penguins at New York Aquarium in Coney Island – impeccably dressed in tuxedos, keeping a clean nest and looking forward to their 16th anniversary – became mascots.

Of course same-sex penguin relationships weren’t equally accepted everywhere. In Germany, a zoo discovered that three out of five of their penguins were homosexual and staged an intervention by bringing four females from Sweden to “convince” the males. I question any effort on the part of the Germans to “protect a species,” but the zoo brought in two additional straight males so that “the ladies don’t miss out.” A nice gesture, no?

In all, scientists have noted homosexual or transvestite tendencies among over 200 species. But just when the world thought that creatures with no free will would open conservatives’ eyes to what is natural, things got complicated.

South African scientists filmed an Antarctic fur seal trying to have sex with a penguin. That’s 200 pounds of mammal on top of 30 pounds of aves. The bird protested, but to no avail. She survived the 40 minute ordeal, the only recorded of its kind, with what scientists characterize as a young, inexperienced male. Ouch.

Then other curious facts about “natural” sexual behavior came to light. Those devoted creatures fighting to protect their families that Morgan Freeman told you about in March of the Penguins? One out of seven change partners on a regular basis. Adelie penguins prostitute themselves to single males for little rocks to build nests. A far cry from all the tap dancing and surfing the little guys do on the big screen isn’t it?

So now that we’re waiting for the release of Happy Feet 2: Special Victims Unit, let’s see what it can mean for the progressive agenda. Before they fire up the stake, let’s state for the record that just because behavior occurs in the animal world, it does not mean that it should occur in ours.

The amoral state of nature does not differentiate between “natural” occurrences; motherhood, mating rituals and rape are all equal.

It is the human reason and will that separate us from that part of the natural world. Although natural does not mean desirable or morally sound, it by no means mitigates the legitimacy of the struggle for civil rights for same-sex couples. Penguins are sketchy creatures, and apparently so are seals. All of God’s creation, it seems, has the potential to engage in behaviors that harms or offends other creatures. Humans are the only ones that can do so intentionally, with premeditation, with malicious intent.

A love relationship between two consenting adults is not among the worst of the animalistic things humans do to each other.

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