we’ve always been here

      Trump and his cronies don’t care about facts and science in their queer bashing, but we’ve always been here and we aren’t going anywhere.

      Science writer Josh L. Davis leads LGBTQ+ tours at the Natural History Museum in London. His charming and informative presentations have become popular on YouTube and they have inspired “A Little Queer Natural History” (University of Chicago Press, 128 page), a beautifully illustrated book celebrating the “non-heteronormative biology and behaviors that exist in the natural world.”

      Gorgeous photographs accompany stories of hermaphroditic fish, lesbian gulls and male swan couples raising chicks, as well as spotted hyenas in female-centric colonies. Davis provides evidence of the prevalence of homosexual activity among gorillas, giraffes and sheep. Same-sex coupling in penguin colonies is documented along with instances of male dolphins pairing off for life. Studies prove that environmental factors determine the gender of turtles, bearded dragon lizards, crocodiles and the common pill woodlouse.

      Adaptability is essential for survival. Readers learn that tiny moss mites have been asexually reproducing for 400 million years. Caribbean mangrove killifish produce both sperm and eggs, fertilizing them by “selfing” with itself.

      Elusive eels are unsexed until midlife. Frogs and toads are gender fluid. The author expands his thesis with research that demonstrates ”eighty-five percent of all flowering plants … are hermaphroditic” and fungi reproduce “asexually, sexually or parasexually.”

      Davis’s colorful encyclopedia takes on “scientific” literature dating back to Aristotle, critiquing it for its biases and “moral language” regarding the diversity of sexual expression. By looking so closely at the queering of the natural world, the author underlines and celebrates an expansive view of erotic behavior.

      Rooted in empiricism, with no anthropomorphizing or didacticism allowed, “A Little Queer Natural History” is a valuable counterweight against the homophobia bred by today’s culture wars.