There are often gay animals. What? The penguins OD'd on QE?By which I meant to say, if animals are doing it, how unnatural is it really? Animals don't do things to be cool or piss off their parents. I have not seen the penguin film, though.

Yeah, I can't help but think that pointing to the sex lives of penguins in a movies is actually going to bolster anyone's case for intelligent design or any other crap like that, just because once you open that door, then the fact that animals exhibit sexual behavior all over the spectrum is suddenly allowed into the discussion, which does not serve their case.

Besides, of course a movie is going to give the impression of an intelligent designer at work -- he's called the fucking DIRECTOR you morons.

I dunno -- there are plenty of unintelligent directors out there. Of course, there are also things like hangnails, so if I was designed, I have my doubts about that designer's intelligence too.

This is the perfect moment to segue into discussions of alternate-reality treatments of sex and gender (Gethen, Whileaway), but it seems to me that nobody ever makes movies about these. Possibly because they cannot star Tom Cruise.

I dunno -- there are plenty of unintelligent directors out there.

Oh sure.... I'm not saying having a director automatically leaves one with the impression of an intelligent designer at work. Just that in this particular case...

This is the perfect moment to segue into discussions of alternate-reality treatments of sex and gender

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but there was a great science fiction story I read in an anthology once that featured a species whose extruding genetalia snapped off during intercourse and melded with the genitals of the accepting genetalia. They effectively switched genders during intercourse.

if animals are doing it, how unnatural is it really?

Modern conservatives only care about supporting their agenda, not reality. It only counts if it supports their pre-determined conclusion. See Schwarzenegger's "legislatures should decide on marriage, until the California legislature actually approves" statements.

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but there was a great science fiction story I read in an anthology once that featured a species whose extruding genetalia snapped off during intercourse and melded with the genitals of the accepting genetalia. They effectively switched genders during intercourse.

Boy, there's a reality where teaching abstinence as the primary birth control method in schools might actually work.

Apparently some conservatives have embraced March of the Penguins as a film espousing their values about monogamy and intelligent design (WTF?)

Does their version of the Intelligent Designer hate penguins? Because...dude. f I were designing a universe, I'd have been a lot nicer to them. Just for being so cute.

(Also, did they miss the part where the penguins are only monogamous for a single season at a time?)

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but there was a great science fiction story I read in an anthology once that featured a species whose extruding genetalia snapped off during intercourse and melded with the genitals of the accepting genetalia. They effectively switched genders during intercourse.

It wasn't Venus Plus X, but that's what your post made me think of.

(Also, did they miss the part where the penguins are only monogamous for a single season at a time?)

Much like Newt Gingrich, or Rush Limbaugh.

Also, did they miss the part where the penguins are only monogamous for a single season at a time?

Yep, this describes my conservative friends pretty well.

I think the local paper ran an op ed piece about the penguins last month. One was along the lines of "if these penguins were captive and had to do these things liberals and animal rights activists would be trying to stop it." I think he went on to bitch about something, mostly likely how the liberal agenda would kill penguins if they could.

Growing up I often heard about homosexuality being deviant because it wasn't found in nature. God didn't make any of his creations gay and so being gay is a choice to sin against God.

Now, of course, we find out that animals have all kinds of sex. Even gay necropheliac sex. (Although I assume these people don't know about the necropheliac duck sex, because if they did, all their heads would explode. )

So the same people are now saying "God made people better than animals and in His Own Image. And God isn't gay so people aren't gay and animals are just base creatures that do all kinds of disgusting things. And people are better than animals."