Dolphins, Penguins and Ducks! Oh, my!
Andrew Sullivan pointed me to an article on homosexual, necrophiliac ducks. I'll let you read the account, witnessed by a researcher in the Netherlands for yourself. The apparently recent discovery of homosexuality among animals has been used by opponents and proponents alike. Homosexuals point to the evidence of homosexual pairs in the animal kingdom as evidence that homosexuality is in fact "natural," and hardly the "crime against nature" the religious wrong rails against. For their part, the religious wrong have switched their tactics from saying "even the animals understand that male belongs with female" to equating homosexuality with baser animal instincts. Whatever.
I've always found homosexual activity in the animal kingdom interesting, but not much more than that. It is tempting for homosexuals to try and prove the validity of our emotions, feelings and desires, but I tend to believe such attempts are ultimately fruitless. As the right has already shown, it doesn't matter what facts are available for view. They will simply alter their interpretation of the facts to fit their immutable beliefs. As Churchill said, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."
Even so, when viewing any behavior among animals, and perhaps sexual behavior in particular, it seems we tend to project our own experience and beliefs onto whatever act we are viewing. Take the current subject of ducks, for example. Mallard ducks tend to be rather violent in their mating rituals. I remember watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom when I was younger and being shocked and disturbed watching the apparent rape of a female duck by a male duck. Indeed the above article talks about duck mating practices as rape. But is it really rape? Has anyone ever interviewed a female duck and asked how she felt about the experience? If that is "normal" sexual behavior for a species does it deserve to be labeled as something so negative to human beings as rape? What if it's more like some bizarre S&M thing? I can pretty much guarantee that I would be just as shocked and disturbed watching two humans engaging in S&M sexual practice as I was watching those two ducks mate.
Even the whole necrophilia thing is suspect to me. I mean, come on people. Does a duck have enough brain power to have a fetish for dead bodies? The researcher suspects the two were engaged in one of the flying mating rituals when the first bird slammed into the researcher's window, bringing the chase to an abrupt end. Was the second bird even aware the other was in fact dead or just that it had stopped playing the game? Was it necrophilia or was the second bird just locked in some primal sex mode and unable to disengage that urge to copulate until it was sated? Was it simply unable to comprehend why his partner was no longer participating? Was the pecking really a vicious attack on a dead partner or just a duck's way of saying, "Dude, get up."
Regardless of what might actually be going through a duck's mind, or a dolphin's, or a penguin's, one really needs to have his sense of self based on more than just things observable in nature. It needs to come from within. Science has never dissuaded the religious from their flawed belief systems. It took the Catholic church over 300 years to apologize to Galileo for forcing him to recant what is now incontrovertible fact. Since we don't know more than we do know, I wouldn't base my personal identity on it either. A friend of mine and I were discussing homosexuality a while back. He brought up all the usual arguments: sex as a reproductive tool, perpetuation of the species, natural order, yatta yatta yatta. I shot them down, one by one. He made the comment that I had reasoned everything out pretty well. "Rich," I said, "reason is not why I made the choices that I have. I know what I feel is right. I go with what I feel, and use reason to try and understand my feelings." I know who I am. I don't need science or religion or Roy and Silo to validate my existence. Neither should anyone else.