British Library to celebrate ‘queer’ animals

THE British Library has announced an event celebrating “queer” animals as part of its programme in Pride month.

The national library is a member of LGBT charity Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme, and its event will “celebrate nature in all its queerness”, with a focus on animals whose sexual behaviour breaks free from standard “gender roles”.

The museum says of the event, starting on June 5: “A new generation of researchers are uncovering bisexual penguins, lesbian albatross and genderbending fish.

“Their discoveries show that animal sexuality is far more diverse than we once thought and has been limited by narrow human stereotypes of heterosexuality, monogamy and gender roles.”

The overview of the event adds that it will “explore the rich and varied field of animal sexuality and celebrate nature in all its queerness”.

The library says such queer animals include various types of fish, such as the coral goby, which changes sex repeatedly, freshwater mangrove killifish, which reproduce by self-fertilisation, and the female Amazon molly, which mates with males of other species.

The event will feature geneticist Adam Rutherford, actor and naturalist Isabella Rossellini, zoologist Lucy Cooke, and Sabrina Imbler, who has written works on “queer” sea creatures.

Some campaigners have taken issue with branding animals with the human categorisation of “queer”, and the implication that human behaviour could mirror the “queer” capabilities of certain fish, such as changing sex.

A spokesman for Sex Matters, the gender critical legal group, stated: “Human beings aren’t clownfish. I am not sure what the British Library was thinking in giving a message about fish that change sex over their lifecycle as being relevant.”

The British Library has been contacted for comment.