Exhibit on homosexuality in nature

[emmagrant01]

As posted by clara_swift:

It is not what you would expect to see when you take your children on a Sunday outing to the natural history museum: a giant photograph of one male giraffe humping another, or two whales sparring with giant penises. This, however, is Norway, where — for better or worse — the normal rules do not apply.

I love these sorts of stories because they just reinforce what I already believe about the nature of sexuality. After reading the many negative comments on the article, though, I can't help but wonder what impact such an exhibit would have on people who believe homosexuality is a choice/sin/abomination. I mean, we already know such folks won't be persuaded by science or logic -- their beliefs are held very centrally, and beliefs are incredibly difficult to change. Maybe stories like this only reinforce their beliefs, as indicated in some of those comments.

What do you think? Would this sway any of the bigots you know?

Comments

Re: I'm not hardline on many things, but this issue...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Sad, but true. The research on what it takes to change people's deeply held beliefs is pretty clear. :-/

I read somewhere recently that in the US state elections where there gay marriage amendments on the ballot, voters in districts where there were visible gay communities voted against the measures, while voters in areas where the gay community didn't have a presence tended to vote for them. In other words, the people who voted for such measures were likely not to know anyone who was gay (and out), while people who voted against it were likely to know or see gay people in their communities.

Re: I'm not hardline on many things, but this issue...

[ellie-nor.livejournal.com]

Re. the ballot, that doesn't surprise me - something that scares them is in their neighbourhood ('ZOMG eleventy-one!!! Make it stoooop!!!' or 'They can be that way as long as they go and do it somewhere else.') ::sighs::

Re: I'm not hardline on many things, but this issue...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was the other way around. Voting for the anti-marriage proposal was voting to make marriage between a man and a woman. Voting against it was to tell the govt to MYOB about who gets married. And the more likely people were to know someone who was gay, the more likely they were to tell the govt to STFU. ;-)

Re: I'm not hardline on many things, but this issue...

[ellie-nor.livejournal.com]

Ah! ::looks for brain - fails to find::

Knowing someone is the big thing. Sadly, what I described does also happen, but maybe more with 'race' than with sexuality. Certainly, the 'powder keg ethnic tension' situations here in the UK tend to be where there are two closed communities living side by side. But yes, with out gay people in an area, there's more likely to be friendships 'across cultures' - or maybe there are a lot of out gay people in an area because it's more liberal to start with?

Re: I'm not hardline on many things, but this issue...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Perhaps -- you're right that it's a bit iffy to put too much cause and effect there. I don't know any more of the details of the study than that, though I'd assume they accounted for it it the statistics.

Re: I'm not hardline on many things, but this issue...

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

FUnny thing: the areas of the country that don't have a lot of immigrants are all for tough immigration laws. The areas that have a lot of immigrants are opposed to such laws.