The thing to remember about freedom is that it is not given, it is taken

I was in high school biology class – so, 1987. A student asked Mr. O’Day why people would make a stupid assertion like ‘homosexuality is not a choice, it is inherited’. It went something like this:

Student 1: But Mr. O’day, gay couples can’t procreate, so the gay gene wouldn’t get passed on, so it’s a stupid argument to try to make.

O’Day: Gay men are physically capable of having sex with a woman and fathering children – passing on those genes.

Student 1: Well, okay… but… it just can’t be natural. I mean, gay men father these babies for generations and generations? It doesn’t make sense.

Wulf: Yeah. Why would it survive natural selection? What purpose would homosexuality have?

O’Day: Perhaps homosexual men possess characteristics that are more community oriented. That would make their gene likely to be passed on over generations. I can’t say for sure, but the fact is that - morality aside - homosexuality is observed in the animal kingdom.

[blank stares]

O’Day: For example, many seagulls are gay. And it isn’t because they hang out on the coast.

I have no idea why seagulls were his example, but I remember it pretty clearly – partly because seagulls used to congregate on the soccer field, and there was one kid in class who, for the rest of that school year, would walk into class, point out the window at the gulls, and say “look at those faggots on the soccer field!” I thought it was funny the first time.
So, um, back to Oslo. No mention of seagulls in the BBC article, but it still sounds like an interesting exhibit. But of course the question comes up: Is this a proper function of government? Well, Norwegians are a bunch of socialists, so for them I suppose it is. What I find most frustrating about the USA is that this sort of thing would be opposed here for all the wrong reasons. In case you doubt my assertion:

There has been some hostility to the exhibition. An American commentator said it was an example of "propaganda invading the scientific world".

Haha… no kidding. An American said that? I find that hard to believe. We all know how Americans like to keep their science separate from their social agendas.

Petter Bockman, a zoologist who helped put the show together, admitted that "there is a political motive".

Thanks for clearing that up, Petter. Incidentally, it wasn’t that long ago that gay rights activists were protesting plans to test the sexual orientation of penguins which had engaged in homosexual activity. BBC story here. That was rather ridiculous, imho. At the time, I refrained from making comparisons between zoos and prisons. It is a less natural environment, and therefore provides less insight. Besides, it would be in poor taste to note the similarities between this image and this one.

Adding some female penguins to that zoo was just fine. Let’s at least make an effort to keep our science separate from our social agendas after all.