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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Is there any example out there of exclusive homosexuality in another species?

[–]Three_oneFourWanted for thought crimes in countless ideologies 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There are probably cases of apparent exclusive homosexuality in species that mate for life, but I'm not sure if that's because two bisexuals chose another of the same sex to mate with for life or if at least one of them was legitimately homosexual. I think I've heard of gay penguins adopting orphaned eggs, but I also think a lot of penguin species mate for life.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There's a whole bunch of documented cases we know of now that did not get well documented in the past or were brushed aside by religious observers as assuming the animals were diseased. A good reference book on the subject is "Biological Exuberance" by Bruce Bagemihl: https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Exuberance-Homosexuality-Natural-Diversity/dp/031225377X

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Are they right that there are trans animals too?

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Not really, no. Bruce lists animals that display "transgender" traits that he categorizes into two subclasses as "intersexuality" and "transvestitism". There are relative few such examples given, and those animals have behaviors that are best described as sex/gender-non-conforming behavior, i.e. the animal is behaving in a way that is stereotypically associated with the other sex of that animal species. We of course know that this doesn't literally make someone the opposite sex, but rather that their behavior simply doesn't conform to sex stereotypes. Also, this is a book written in 2000 and terminology about this sort of thing was rapidly changing in the past few decades, so obviously the trans related definitions used then don't have the same definition as nowadays.

So no, this book can't really be used by the trans movement as a defense of transgenderism being naturally occurring in other animals in the same way it does in humans. There's nothing that really compares in other animal species with the phenomenon of transgenderism in humans.