"The dismissal of homosexuality in animals, and the treatment of such animals as freaks or as pejorative, helps reify negative attitudes toward sexual minorities in humans," science journalist Rachel E. Gross writes in "Vagina Obscura," paraphrasing biologist Joan Roughgarden.
Assuming all species only form female-male pairings and are fixed in sexuality and gender has led to overlooking normal behaviors, from doodlebugs to dolphins.
"It explains why, after this decade where same-sex behavior was published and was sort of a lightning rod, it kind of disappeared. It's also the same century when you had a lot of capital punishment laws against sodomy among humans," Schrefer tells Axios.
Same-sex sexual behavior has been recorded in over 1,500 animal species, challenging traditional views, as highlighted in well-regarded scientific journals like Nature.
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