Thursday, June 04, 2009

Gay Penguins Raising a Family

Here's what we're talking about...
BERLIN (AFP) - Two homosexual penguins have successfully hatched an egg that was rejected by its parents and are now proudly rearing the chick, the German zoo housing the couple said on Wednesday.

"Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their 'Easter present' and began straight away with hatching the egg," said the zoo in Bremerhaven, in northern Germany.

"Since the chick arrived they are behaving in the same way as one would expect a heterosexual couple to do. Both happy fathers are now diligently handling the everyday care ... of their adopted offspring," the zoo said.

Z and Vielpunkt are part of a six-strong gay community among the zoo's collection of endangered Humboldt penguins who rose to fame in 2005 when four Swedish females were brought in an unsuccessful attempt to "cure" them.

"Homosexuality is nothing unusual among animals," the zoo said. "Sex and coupling up in our world do not necessarily have anything to do with reproduction."

The Humboldt penguin is normally found on the coast of Chile and Peru, but numbers have dropped to between 12,000 and 20,000 as industrial fishing methods have led to dwindling stocks of the anchovies on which they feed. Gay penguins hatch rejected egg

This statement has a lot of implications: "Sex and coupling up in our world do not necessarily have anything to do with reproduction." I suppose "in our world" means among zoo animals. There is a certain way of thinking about sex and marriage in our society, a belief that they have a function -- reproduction -- and should be regulated according to that function. That view always seemed awkward to me, I have never been comfortable inferring what nature intends, or what God intends, for that matter, and making decisions based on that. I think we hear the will of nature in our hearts, we don't accurately deduce it from empirical observation.

These penguins love one another, and now they have a cute little tuxedoed baby to love. Everything seems good in this story.

27 Comments:

Anonymous svelte_brunette said...

I swear Jim, sometimes I think you post these articles just to piss off the Anons. From the article it appears that the AFA was never even contacted, much less was any “reparative therapy” tried. How can we ever know if Z and Vielpunkt are truly gay or not or just the victims of poor penguin upbringing if we don’t give them the chance to renounce their homosexuality in front of their friends and family and take Jesus Christ as their savior?

The next things these penguins will want is a gay marriage – you can’t have a marriage with two penguins in tuxedos! One (and only one!) of them should be wearing a dress!

Peace, ;)

Cynthia

June 04, 2009 10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

cannibalism is also observed in some animal communities as well as inter-species humping

food for thought, my friends

June 04, 2009 10:43 AM  
Anonymous ha-ha said...

that's right

food for thought

June 04, 2009 10:43 AM  
Anonymous Robert said...

They already have the tuxedos for the wedding.

June 04, 2009 11:17 AM  
Anonymous Robert said...

I wonder if anonymous internet trolls are observed in the animal world.

I talked to some members of the GSA from Fairfax HS yesterday. The Westboro bunch picketed their school last month. The kids thought they were really funny (too absurd to be taken seriously). It seems what the students did was wear tie-die shirts in solidarity with the lgbt targets of the hatred, and it was a big hit.

June 04, 2009 11:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

too bad Whitman didn't try that approach

how did WBC, Jim's favorite cartoon characters, sidle into town without TTF notification?

June 04, 2009 11:26 AM  
Anonymous emperor penguin said...

look, if "let's get animal" is the new gay motto, you guys might have to pay royalties to Olivia Newton John

June 04, 2009 11:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the New York City Central Park Zoo, there's an ex-gay penguin named Silo. As the children's book goes (And Tango Makes Three)...Silo had a male partner and they raised a penguin called Tango.

Anyway....Silo left his male partner once a female partner was made available to him.

June 04, 2009 11:31 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

June 04, 2009 1:21 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

“cannibalism is also observed in some animal communities as well as inter-species humping

food for thought, my friends”


That’s nothing compared to those animal communities that eat only Fox.

June 04, 2009 1:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

do you having any scientific studies proving you possess at least an average intelligence, improv?

June 04, 2009 2:31 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

"do you having any scientific studies proving you possess at least an average intelligence, improv?"

June 04, 2009 3:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

send to your buddy, Priya

June 04, 2009 3:57 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

I wonder if anonymous internet trolls are observed in the animal world.



On no, Robert. Anonymous Internet Trolling is purely a human deviancy.

June 04, 2009 3:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

that comment was brought to you this evening by our most deviant anonymous internet troll, Aunt Bea

June 04, 2009 4:25 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

Except I'm identifiable.

June 04, 2009 4:30 PM  
Anonymous Bumble Bee said...

that does it, you phony

from now on, I'm Bumble Bee

June 04, 2009 4:43 PM  
Anonymous Derrick said...

Adorable!

Love always beats hate :)

Hola from Costa Rica!

¡Pura vida!

June 04, 2009 4:44 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

We'll see if that nom de plume lasts any longer than any of the others, Lightning Man, er ah, rag man.

June 05, 2009 7:19 AM  
Anonymous lightning man said...

do you ever have anything nice to say, you crazy old bat?

June 05, 2009 8:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are we in an echo chamber, "Anonymous"? Listen again to what you just said...you the prime example of sneerdom and snarkiness!!
Athena

June 05, 2009 9:30 AM  
Anonymous lightning man said...

that's rich coming from someone who thinks she's a Greek goddess!

June 05, 2009 10:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am a Greek Goddess, you lower-than-life, earth-bound scum!! Climb up to the top of Mt. Parnassus for a life-affirming view of the world as it could be. I'll show you around!
Athena

June 05, 2009 10:35 AM  
Anonymous lightning lad said...

there's alot of people here like you

they think they're something they're not and then get mad if anyone notes that the Emperor has no clothes

I guess I'll be gravely offending you if I don't captialize the She when referring to you, uh?

the wacky world of TTF

I tell you

I mean, I tell You

June 05, 2009 11:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No...(now to be named "lightening Lad" - what happened to the "man" part?) I am not offended by your puerile remarks and words; I am offended by you.
Athena

June 05, 2009 1:40 PM  
Anonymous lightning lad said...

I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

June 05, 2009 2:09 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

do you ever have anything nice to say, you crazy old bat?

Sure! I say something nice every time you write something nice for us to read on this blog!

June 05, 2009 5:43 PM  

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