Bruce Bagemihl is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, and author of the book ''Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity''.

Life and career

He completed his BA at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1981, and served on the faculty of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, where he taught linguistics and cognitive science. He earned a Ph.D. in linguistics from UBC in 1988, with a dissertation entitled ''Alternate phonologies and morphologies''. ''Biological Exuberance'' cites numerous studies on more than 450 species (see List of animals displaying homosexual behavior) showing that homosexual and

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

behaviors are common among animals and proposes a theory of sexual behavior in which

reproduction Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: Asexual reproduction, asexual and Sexual ...

is only one of its principal biological functions. Bagemihl proposes that group cohesion and lessening of tensions, seen for example among

bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee (less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee), is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus ''Pan (genus), Pan'' (the other bei ...

s, are other important functions of sexual behavior. He also argues that the implications for humans of homosexual behaviour across the animal kingdom are "enormous." His book on homosexuality in animals was cited by the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

and other groups in their '' amici curiae'' brief to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

in '' Lawrence v. Texas'', the case which ultimately struck down sodomy laws across the United States. The book formed the basis for the museum exhibition Against Nature?. He has also published several essays and scientific articles on issues related to language, biology, gender, and sexuality.

Selected publications

* Bruce Bagemihl. 1988. The morphology and phonology of Katajjait (Inuit throat games). ''Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique'' 33(1), 1-58. * Bruce Bagemihl. 1999. ''Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.'' St. Martin’s Press. * Bruce Bagemihl. 2001. Animals Do Do It. ''Alternatives Journal'' 27(3), 36.

References

External links

NewScientist "Queer Creatures" 07 August 1999Article about Bagemihl's work in the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” (in German)
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Sexual orientation and science Academic staff of the University of British Columbia 21st-century Canadian biologists Linguists from Canada Canadian LGBTQ scientists Canadian gay writers Linguists of Salishan languages 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Canadian LGBTQ academics {{Canada-academic-bio-stub