Curious Nature: Pride in the wild — queer ecology and queerness in nature
Walking Mountains Science Center/Courtesy photo
June is Pride Month, a celebration of queer identity that honors the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which catalyzed the gay rights movement in the United States. Pride is something to be celebrated across Eagle County, and Mountain Pride, a local LGBTQ+ organization, recently hosted a record-breaking Pride in the Park event Saturday, June 3.
However, despite the momentous strides made over the last several decades in the United States, we’re still witnessing the dispossession of LGBTQ+ rights, particularly transgender rights, and harassment toward and intolerance of queer identity. In light of this, it’s important we take a step back and remember that queerness is all around us in the flora and fauna we share a home with. Let’s get curious about queer ecology, and the gender and sexuality fluidity found in the living world.
What is queer ecology, you might be asking? Queer ecology is a scholarly discipline that aims to break gender and sex binaries (i.e., woman and man/male and female) with the goal of changing how humans interact with and view the outdoors. Queer ecology was introduced by Catriona Sandilands, a professor of Environmental Arts and Justice at York University, in 1994. The discipline today exemplifies through research how gender and sexuality fluidity are very natural, showing up in nature in a myriad of forms. A question a queer ecologist might ask in their research is “how do gender roles and norms influence behavior in the outdoors?”
Moving from theory to real world applications, we can find queerness all over the world, and in many diverse ecosystems. For example, clownfish exhibit gender nonconformity. All clownfish are born male, but the dominant males in the school turn female to lay eggs and reproduce. Hawkfish, on the other hand, are even more gender nonconforming. They are born female, but once reaching adulthood, they can switch back and forth between male and female depending on the favorability in a given situation.
In terms of mating, there are over 450 different animal species worldwide that partake in homosexual behavior (of course, humans included!). Some of these observed animals include penguins, giraffes, and some lizard species. Additionally, and interestingly enough, some of the strongest research on homosexuality has come out of the Department of Agriculture. In studies, 8.5% of rams consistently chose other males as sexual partners, and some ranchers today know that their female bovids are in heat when they begin to mount other females.
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Clearly, then, human queerness is nothing but natural, and is something to be celebrated. I would like to leave you with this quote from Alex Johnson of Orion Magazine, who wrote about this topic:
“What, then, is natural? All of it. None of it. Instead of using the more-than-human world as justification for or against certain behavior and characteristics, let’s use the more-than-human world as a humbling indication of the capacity and diversity of all life on Earth.”
Happy Pride Month!
Gina McCrackin is the climate action collaborative Manager for Eagle County communities. The Climate Action Collaborative goal is to decrease Eagle County greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030, and 80% by 2050, from our 2014 baseline.
