The next time somebody tells you that homosexuality is
unnatural, tell them that 1500 animal species practice
homosexuality. Some, like dwarf chimpanzees, are
bisexual. Some, like lions for instance, do it to
"ensure loyalty." Some have fleeting heterosexual
relationships but long lasting homosexual ones, like
dolphins and killer whales. Geese seem to think that
they can raise better offspring with two mothers [1].
Doesn't that sound 'natural'? Animals are nature in
practice (they don't need to be intellectuals to know
how they feel). I mean, you cannot mess with Mother
Nature, unless you think she's inferior. Do you? You
might be thinking of something along those lines. Well,
Mother Nature – aside from being your Mother (which is
close to Godliness) – is the most complex living and
breathing organism. If we could mount a building with a
ventilation system like that of a termite mound, we
wouldn't need air conditioning! It is a 'natural'
cooling system (which has been put to use in Zimbabwe
already). And spiders? The material used to weave webs,
with a balance of flexibility and rigidity, can be used
to hold up a bridge. Don't mess with Mother Nature... Do
you hear an earthquake? Like I said – don't mess with
her. She is sustainable, organic, efficient, and queer.
Yes, queer.
I always wonder about societies where animals are not
only valued as part of the ecosystem, but treated as
teachers. North-American Natives follow bears around
because bears know exactly which herbs to use to fix up
their wounds. I thought about the Sentinelese tribe that
fled the massive South Asian Tsunami, apparently through
the "ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and
birds" [2], a long time before the wave could ever reach
them. Communication with Mother Nature, and a deep
knowledge of her workings actually saved the lives of
entire indigenous tribes. I wonder about how little we
know and understand our Mother and how much we could
learn, if only we could re-acclimate our senses to read
her language. How much cheaper our livelihood would cost
and how much more efficient we could be – if only we
listened to nature's workings. No machine could decipher
the tsunami better than the divinely-made biology of
birds, and the human bodies that can read the science of
the elements of the natural world they were born to live
in a relationship with.
I bet at this
point, you are still wondering what queerness and
homosexuality have to do with all of that. By telling
you that nature is the most sophisticated mechanism in
the entire history of mechanisms (the natural
environment has in fact had 16.4 billion years to
evolve) and that it is inherently queer, what I am
really saying is the following: we should reconsider how
Mother Nature could help resolve our own issues with
queerness. Homosexuality among people that are closer to
the earth is usually considered a gift, a bonding, a
survival technique, a spiritual act – like animals
perceive it to be. Mother Nature could be our first and
foremost teacher when it comes to LGBTQ and other
movements (more than under the rubric of so-called
"environmentalism"). Talk to your Mother. Peace.
1. Medical Science News Oct. 23 2006
2. CBS News, Jan. 14 2005
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