Consider the majestic Laysan albatross.
With average wingspans of over six feet, faces covered by a distinct black blush, and lifespans that can match those of humans, Laysan albatrosses are considered culturally significant by Indigenous peoples on the islands of Hawaii.
They are also super gay. Laysan albatross mate for life, and a 2008 study of the birds living on the island of Oahu found 31 per cent of all pairs were entirely female.
Animals, filmmaker Rio Mitchell has learned, are here, they're queer, and they're far more common than you might think.
乌鸦传媒淨ueerness in nature is the rule, not the exception."
Mitchell of Ymir, B.C., near Nelson, is director of the new documentary Animal Pride: Nature's Coming Out Story that debuts May 29 on CBC Gem. The film shows queer behaviour in a variety of species as well as biologists whose work proves sex in the natural world isn't just about reproduction.
Animal Pride takes viewers to Tofino, B.C., where hermaphrodite slugs mate, to the Rockies where male bighorn sheep spend 10 months of the year together, and to Antarctica where same-sex behaviours are common among Adelie penguins.
Mitchell said the movie came about after host Connel Bradwell noticed same-sex behaviour in orcas and wondered why, for all the nature documentaries that have been filmed, there was nothing that considered gay animals.
This has driven what she describes as a heteronormative bias in biology, which has simplified the sexual relationships of animal behaviours to reproduction while overlooking other reasons for why a male orca might prefer the company of another male.
But homophobia plays its part as well. In one scene of Animal Pride, a curator at the Natural History Museum in London shows Bradwell a study about the sexual habits of penguins in the early 20th century that wasn't published until 2012.
乌鸦传媒淲e're sort of trained to look at animals and see mommies and daddies, right? And that's it," says Mitchell. "The truth of the matter is nature is impossibly complex, and that's just not how it works.乌鸦传媒�
Animal Pride is also as much about scientists as it is nature. Vancouver's Jaylen Bastos studies animal behaviour and queer ecology in urban ecosystems by day and performs drag at night. Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a trans woman, is an award-winning educator who speaks to Bradwell about how queerness is defined in Hawaiian culture.
Mitchell said she wanted the film to encourage more 2SLGTBQIA+ voices in science.
"Scientists make science and that becomes the way that we see the world. And so if science, biology, is being researched primarily by, in this case, lots of cisgendered white men in 1800s England, then that builds a certain picture that we have of the world and our place within it.乌鸦传媒�
Animal Pride was made by a team of queer filmmakers, which Mitchell says gives it a decidedly more fabulous flavour than other nature documentaries. She hopes viewers learn that homosexuality is perfectly natural, especially so in nature.
If that helps humans become as accepting as albatrosses are, then it's all the better.
乌鸦传媒淚 want your uncle to watch this, I want your grandma to watch this, and I want your secretly queer little cousin to watch this. Queer nature isn't just for queer people, but my gosh, as a queer person does it ever help.乌鸦传媒�
