In summary, a whole host of considerations cast serious doubt on mistaken sex recognition or indiscriminate mating as an explanation with wide applicability (or credibility). Once again, the complexities of animal behavior elude the broad brushstrokes of human interpretation. Numerous interconnected elements must be factored in, such as the subtleties of actual physical differences between the sexes, the strength and acuity of animals’ various perceptual abilities, differential behaviors between males and females, the active participation of individuals “mistaken” for the opposite sex, and the intricacies that arise when transgender is layered over homosexuality. In the end, the most significant “misrecognition” is probably not that of animals who overlook each other’s sex, but that of scientists who fail to recognize the importance and interplay of these factors. Nevertheless, even if mating or courtship in some species is in fact random or indiscriminate between males and females, such “randomness” is actually compelling evidence (once again) for a bisexual capacity in such creatures. This in itself is a vital observation that is frequently downplayed by scientists, who all too readily discount the homosexual part of this mating equation as a necessary “error” made by animals on their path to achieving greater heterosexual output. In such a mechanistic view, animals simply mate with as many partners as they can—male or female—to maximize their reproductive success, even if it means that some of their matings will be nonreproductive. The fact remains, however, that such animals have the ability to respond sexually to individuals of their own sex—and they do so repeatedly, with apparent enthusiasm, and (one might add) noticeable disregard for the “mistakes” they are making.
“Gross Abnormalities of Behavior”—Homosexuality as Pathology
Homosexuality in animals has frequently been regarded as a pathological condition. Such terms as abnormal and aberrant are routinely applied to this phenomenon (as mentioned in chapter 3), often with no further justification or explication—homosexuality is considered sufficient in itself to warrant the label of disease, disorder, dysfunction, or deviance. A number of researchers, however, are more specific in their pathologizing of homosexuality and transgender, and in this section we’ll examine two of the principal “explanations” of this sort that have been put forward: the claims that homosexuality is caused by the artificial conditions of captivity, and that homosexuality/transgender is the manifestation of a physiological abnormality.
Something Amiss at the Zoos
For a long time, scientists discounted examples of animal homosexuality because some of the earliest descriptions were based on captive animals. In many cases, biologists continue to classify this behavior as “abnormal” and attribute it to the “unnatural” circumstances of confinement or contact with humans. One scientist, for example, writes of homosexual pairs in Swans (as well as other “sexual aberrations” such as heterosexual trios and interspecies matings): “Captive swans, like many other animals, sometimes show gross abnormalities of behavior. These are due almost entirely to the artificial conditions under which the birds are kept.”91 As recently as 1991, homosexuality in Wattled Starlings was ascribed to their captivity. Other species for which similar “explanations” have been proposed (including appeals to factors such as crowding and/or stress in captivity) include Common Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Stumptail Macaques, Musk-oxen, Koalas, Long-eared Hedgehogs, Vampire Bats, and Black-crowned Night Herons.92 Sometimes the only context where same-sex activity is discussed is to exemplify the types of “pathologies” that arise in captivity. Homosexuality in Dolphins, for instance, was offered as an illustration of the “sexual aberrancy” that can result from confinement in aquariums, while a case of female coparenting in Barn Owls was included in a report on “Abnormal and Maladaptive Behavior in Captive Raptors”—part of a monograph on (of all things) diseases in birds of prey. Homosexual activity in Rhesus Macaques was even presented (along with a number of other “abnormal” behaviors) as an illustration of the deleterious effects of malnutrition.93 In a perfect example of the sort of circular reasoning that is employed in many scientific discussions, homosexuality in captive animals is often cited as the “proof” of the artificiality of their captive conditions. One zoologist proclaims, “Homosexual behavior [in Cheetahs] … is reported in zoos as quite frequent, which to me indicates that something is amiss at the zoos,” while another states, “The very occurrence of female-female pairs [in Zebra Finches] suggests behavioral pathology.”94 This is chillingly reminiscent of the not-so-distant “medicalized” views of human homosexuality, where the mere existence of same-sex attraction or activity was sufficient to “diagnose” pathology or mental illness.
While it is true that captivity sometimes does induce unusual behaviors in animals, the bulk of the evidence does not support this as a “cause” of animal homosexuality. As primatologist Linda Fedigan observes, “Although … homosexual relationships in animals can occur as a result of stressful captive conditions, we would suggest that all such behavior should not be dismissed as pathological or dysfunctional, a practice which results in ‘explaining it away’ rather than explaining it.”95 On statistical grounds alone there is no substantiation for a greater incidence of homosexuality in captive animals—in fact, just the reverse is true. In more than 60 percent of the mammals and birds in which same-sex activity has been documented, this behavior occurs spontaneously in the wild. In more than two-thirds of these species, homosexuality has only been observed in the wild, while in the remaining cases it occurs in both wild and captive animals.96 A number of scientists have remarked on a higher rate of homosexual activity in captivity compared to in the wild when the behavior occurs in both situations. In other words, there may be a quantitative, rather than qualitative, difference between wild and captive conditions, although the occurrence of homosexuality itself cannot be attributed to confinement. However, even this difference is less than clear-cut. In some species such as Orang-utans, Hamadryas Baboons, Mule Deer, and Musk-oxen, there does indeed appear to be a higher rate of homosexual courtship and/or sexual activity—as well as heterosexual activity—in captivity compared to the wild, although in some instances this is based on impressionistic observations.97 In contrast, two species for which detailed quantitative information is available show nearly identical rates of same-sex activity in the wild versus captivity: in Bonobos, studies of wild animals have revealed that 45–46 percent of all sexual activity is homosexual, while a captive study yielded a figure of 49 percent; in Black Swans, one investigator found that 5 percent of captive pairs were homosexual while 6 percent of wild ones were.98
Failure to observe homosexuality in the wild is more often due to incomplete study or inadequate observational techniques rather than an actual absence of the behavior in free-ranging animals. Time and again, same-sex activity has initially been seen only in captive animals and therefore declared to be definitively not a part of the “normal” sexual repertoire of the species in the wild. Yet when detailed field studies of the same species are finally conducted—often decades later—homosexuality is inevitably discovered. In fact, so pervasive or routine is the behavior now known to be for some species in the wild, that scientists have had to completely revise prior assessments of same-sex activity as “artificial” for these animals in captivity. In Bottlenose Dolphins, for example, male pairs engaging in homosexual behavior were originally observed in aquariums and were considered to be the “aberrant” result of keeping males together without females. Detailed longitudinal and demographic studies of the species—more than forty years later—revealed that male pairs, as well as sex segregation, are a prominent feature of the social organization of this species in the wild. By 1998, zoologists were actually advocating that captive male Bottlenose Dolphins be kept (and reintroduced into the wild) as bonded pairs, recognizing that these constitute a “natural functional social unit” of the species that can assist captive individuals in adjusting to life in the wild upon their release. Another example of a complete turnaround on the part of scientists concerns Gorillas. Early studies of this species reported that homosexuality was not seen in wild Gorillas; three decades later, extensive same-sex activity had been documented in both males and females in the mountain forests of Africa. By 1996, biologists and zookeepers were (at last) openly acknowledging that homosexuality in all-male groups was not an “artificial construct of captivity,” and were even encouraging the formation of such groups in zoos to approximate the species’ natural social patterns.99