[Applause]
sometimes saying just three words out
loud is enough to change the rest of
your life your three words might be I
love you they might be I’m leaving for
me the three words of this I am bisexual
and I am polyamorous to stand here on
this stage and say those words might
seem like no big deal and in many ways
you’re right it’s not after all I’m not
really saying anything controversial
being bisexual just means that I love
people of all kinds men or women or
anyone in between being polyamorous
means that I’m not monogamous in other
words I think it’s possible to have more
than one loving relationship at the same
time I’m also single so clearly that’s
working out for me
I’m very open about Who I am with my
friends and my colleagues but I kept it
a secret from my family for my entire
life
because I was scared they wouldn’t
accept me and I didn’t want to lose them
that all changed one month ago when I
finally came out of the closet to my
family some of my family members have
been extremely loving and accepting and
others unfortunately had a very negative
reaction one member of my immediate
family even told me that I could not go
ahead with this talk because this is
something disgusting this is something
that I shouldn’t be proud of I was
threatened
I was blackmailed I was even bribed I
had to think long and hard about whether
to go ahead with this talk it was a
difficult decision I really love my
family
and I respect their opinions but
ultimately it comes down to this I am
NOT going to hide because I am not
ashamed of Who I am
sadly my story with my family is not
unique there are countless numbers of
people who might be going through
something similar right now and of all
the shocking words that were said three
words in particular stood out to me
three words that I have heard over and
over and over and those words are this
it’s not natural those words are so
often used as a weapon against people
who are LGBTQ all people who are
polyamorous
or even women who don’t fit into
traditional gender roles those words are
particularly interesting to me because
first and foremost I am a biologist so I
am fascinated by the study of what is
and is not natural I like to spend the
next 10 minutes
really breaking down this idea trying to
understand what it really means and
having a look at some of the amazing
things that we do actually see in nature
so natural by definition means things
that occur in nature in the world of
plants and animals and I’m not
suggesting that we are exactly the same
as animals but obviously not we do lots
of things that are not natural we drive
cars and we talk on phones and we wear
clothes and technically if you’re going
to argue it that way straight marriage
is not actually natural because you
don’t see animals getting married unless
you’ve got an Etsy account and too much
time on your hands but you don’t see
anyone protesting it’s straight weddings
on the basis that they’re not natural
because that would be ridiculous the
idea that everything natural is good and
unnatural is bad is something called the
gaia fallacy and it’s very easy to
disprove because cyanide is natural that
doesn’t mean it’s good for you so
clearly that argument falls apart but it
did actually get me wondering do we see
homosexuality and bisexuality in animals
and the answer is yes we do
homosexuality has been documented in
more than 1,500 different species of
animals and in a third of those
regularly everything from Asian
elephants to African elephants to Lions
giraffes dolphins penguins dragonflies
and every species of great ape our
closest ancestor
that’s orangutangs gorillas chimpanzees
and bonobos
in fact in bonobos the vast majority of
individuals are bisexual and 60% of
mating behavior happens between two
females homosexual animal couples also
raise young in New York’s Central Park
Zoo there are two penguins called Roy
and silo two males who formed a romantic
pair and a zookeeper saw them trying to
hatch a stone he also had an egg left
over from a heterosexual couple who are
not nesting it so he gave that egged Roy
and silo and they took turns nesting it
and they did a great job and it hatched
into a healthy female chick called tango
and as it turns out
tango grew up and also happened to be
gay their story was written up into a
children’s book called tango makes three
and it’s used to teach children that
love is what actually makes a family so
clearly we do see homosexuality and
bisexuality in animals it’s all about
things like trans or non-binary what
else is natural before we go any further
we have to understand the difference
between gender and sex so to do this I’m
going to use this illustration by Sam
killerman it’s called the gender bred
person informative and delicious this
shows quite clearly the difference
between your gender identity that’s who
you are your orientation that’s who love
or are attracted to your sex which is
your physical body and your gender
expression that’s how you dress each of
these things is a spectrum not a binary
and by that I mean it’s all shades of
grey it’s not black and white it’s easy
for us to understand that gender
expression is a spectrum because
sometimes I wear trousers and sometimes
I wear a skirt your orientation is also
a spectrum
just because I’m bi it doesn’t mean that
I like men and women all the time
equally in the same way for the same
reasons it’s more complicated than that
and it can change over time as well your
gender is also aspect
there are lots of people who will
identify as a hundred percent male or a
hundred percent female but there are
plenty of people who will identify with
aspects of both gender or neither or
maybe queer or gender fluid but gender
is a social construct it doesn’t exist
in animals so from now on I’m only going
to be talking about biological sex now
in humans broadly speaking our sex is
determined by our chromosomes so in
biological males they look like this an
X and a Y chromosome in biological
females we have two x chromosomes it’s
very important to remember that even at
this fundamental level there is
variation there are people who have
extra sets of chromosomes people who
have different combinations or people
who are intersex who have both sets of
genitals so even the thing that we may
consider a binary simply is not but
broadly speaking we can say that sex is
determined by chromosomes in humans so
is this true of all animals let’s have a
think about the birds and the bees
starting with the birds birds do have
sex chromosomes but males have two the
same and females have two different the
opposite of humans so already we can see
that our human model is not the norm in
bees it is radically different there are
three types of bee there’s a queen who
is a female there’s a worker who is also
a female and then there’s a drone those
are the males so when you see a colony
of bees working away those are all
females the male’s don’t do any work I’m
not making any kind of social commentary
here please I’m only talking about bees
so the males are only born in order to
have sex and then they die it’s a short
life and a queen mates once in her life
and then she stores the sperm and that
means that she can control very
precisely whether she’s laying a male or
a female because if she fertilizes the
egg then it becomes a female and if she
doesn’t then it becomes a male it also
means that male bees have no
father which is a very strange fact to
try and wrap your head around you can
see why it’s studying the animal world
really forces us to question our most
fundamental assumptions about sex and
about reproduction another assumption
that people often have is that male
animals have a penis and female animals
don’t and that’s not even true in humans
but it’s also not true in animals this
is a female spotted hyena can hear some
giggling at the front brace yourselves
[Applause]
the female has genitals which are called
a pseudo penis is actually a modified
clitoris and it looks just like the male
genitalia except it’s larger she also
gives birth through it which is quite an
achievement both males and females can
have erections and that is actually a
sign of surrender or submission so
that’s an interesting take on a behavior
that we in our human ignorance might
tend to associate with dominance now so
far the animals we’ve talked about have
permanent sexes by which I mean they’re
either male or female and that doesn’t
change over time but in many animals sex
is more fluid and it does change that’s
what we call a sequential hermaphrodite
one example is a clownfish in a school
of clownfish there’s usually only one
female she’s the biggest fish and she’s
the top-ranked in the hierarchy so she
is very important and if she dies then
the next biggest fish which is a male
turns into a female to replace her it
would have made the movie Finding Nemo
entirely different
there are even animals which are both
sexes at the same time my favorite
example is the banana slug its latin
name is da loco phallus which means
enormous penis in Latin so you know what
they’re famous for and actually it comes
out of their forehead like some kind of
pornographic unicorn I love biology now
all of them have both sets of genitals
male and females when they want to mate
they form a beautiful yellow yin-yang
like this and each inserts its male
organ into the female organ of the other
but it’s so large that quite often it
will get stuck and when that happens
they have to work together to chew it
off
I don’t want to alarm you but sea slugs
take it a step further their genitals
are sharp like a spear and they stab it
into the side of the other individual in
a process called traumatic insemination
and yes it is traumatic
this harms the receiver but it benefits
the giver because it means that the
other individual has to carry the young
in flatworms which you can see here this
has evolved into a competitive behavior
which is known as penis fencing the
animal world is obviously incredibly
diverse we see a whole lot of different
behaviors in some animals they’ve
dispensed with the battle of the sexes
entirely and there’s only one sex this
is a desert grassland whiptail lizard an
animal in which there are only females
there are never any males they lay eggs
which are unfertilized and those hatch
into their daughters more females in a
process called parthenogenesis but
what’s really interesting is they don’t
lay eggs all the time they only do it
when they’ve been mounted or climbed on
top of by another female
there are even animals in which there
are more than two sexes this is a
creature called tetrahymena thermofoil
a– it’s a single-cell animal and it has
seven different mating types which
functionally are exactly like sexes now
that may seem really shocking and
bizarre but there are animals which go
even further or organisms I should say
which go even further this is a fungus
called skits a phylum communy and it has
not seven different mating types but
twenty-eight thousand so if you were
asked it’s a phylum community fungus on
tinder you would have a real bad time
the world of nature is diverse and
eye-opening and amazing clearly biology
cannot be used to justify bigotry in
fact I would say the opposite is true
the more we look and study the natural
world the more we are forced to question
our own most fundamental assumptions if
you remember only three words from my
talk let it be as follows this all of
this this is natural thank you very much
as a science communicator I know that we
took in a lot of information just then
and I like to summarize my talks in ways
that are short and memorable and funny
so I’d like to summarize what we’ve just
learned in the form of a rap when you’ve
got the natural send this trap too
recklessly heck on me almost I think the
specialty is a foolish move you should
be careful especially with the words you
choose because this this girl is loose
control over the news and science in
defiance of your views so let’s break it
down what is natural it’s what actually
happens in non-human animals to
cannibals what happens in nature doesn’t
mean that it’s desirable behavior so
clearly there’s no basis to this sexist
little pieces but I’d like to break it
down and then we’ll pick up the pieces
because I want to pick apart the many
ways in which it’s wrong sit back and
relax the students
now remember we’re not talking about
gender just sex
gender is a spectrum it’s more complex
when you think of sex
it’s more between your legs it’s more in
sperm and eggs the X Y and X X but check
the text you find this extra set so
don’t forget the rest there’s also
intersects so never know assuming that
it’s simple in humans in animals is even
more confusing so let’s talk about the
birds and the bees – the word on the
street is the Fiza more real expertise
that our bees need and the colonies are
all female and when the Queen needs a
cup of free bells she lays and
fertilized eggs that means male bees
never have a father
the only born to have sex with the new
Queens then they die living life like a
vulture this is just the start because
when you look at what the sex is it
falls apart
to say what a sex is it can’t be hard
because there’s plenty of animals where
they have Birchbox like banana slugs
the method is madness lobster love
because they’ve got da letto phallus
both have a penis like a really weird
form it’s on the head like some kind of
phallic unicorn and that’s natural I
love that I’m really adding filler
here because I love that bit but my
point is that nature is gonna so
perfectly
[Music]
may have left you astounded kids another
creature that has 28,000 that’s right
the skits of Island fungus it salty must
be humongous back to mammals because we
act like animals we think we’re rational
when in fact we’re vulnerable here’s a
radical fact your sexual member doesn’t
have too much respect for your gender
for example some ladies they have a
penis but time you choose humans but
also hyenas they have the pseudo penis
lots of modify clitoris and they give
birth through it maybe a little bit of a
masochist can you imagine this another
fun fact about the matter is when either
sex is submitting they erect their
member like a little white flag of
surrender biology is wild
mad diverse I think there’s only one
thing left to say in this verse let’s
check it audience and what their
knowledge is and never piss on a
bisexual biologist right here
you
sometimes saying just three words out
loud is enough to change the rest of
your life your three words might be I
love you they might be I’m leaving for
me the three words of this I am bisexual
and I am polyamorous to stand here on
this stage and say those words might
seem like no big deal and in many ways
you’re right it’s not after all I’m not
really saying anything controversial
being bisexual just means that I love
people of all kinds men or women or
anyone in between being polyamorous
means that I’m not monogamous in other
words I think it’s possible to have more
than one loving relationship at the same
time I’m also single so clearly that’s
working out for me
I’m very open about Who I am with my
friends and my colleagues but I kept it
a secret from my family for my entire
life
because I was scared they wouldn’t
accept me and I didn’t want to lose them
that all changed one month ago when I
finally came out of the closet to my
family some of my family members have
been extremely loving and accepting and
others unfortunately had a very negative
reaction one member of my immediate
family even told me that I could not go
ahead with this talk because this is
something disgusting this is something
that I shouldn’t be proud of I was
threatened
I was blackmailed I was even bribed I
had to think long and hard about whether
to go ahead with this talk it was a
difficult decision I really love my
family
and I respect their opinions but
ultimately it comes down to this I am
NOT going to hide because I am not
ashamed of Who I am
sadly my story with my family is not
unique there are countless numbers of
people who might be going through
something similar right now and of all
the shocking words that were said three
words in particular stood out to me
three words that I have heard over and
over and over and those words are this
it’s not natural those words are so
often used as a weapon against people
who are LGBTQ all people who are
polyamorous
or even women who don’t fit into
traditional gender roles those words are
particularly interesting to me because
first and foremost I am a biologist so I
am fascinated by the study of what is
and is not natural I like to spend the
next 10 minutes
really breaking down this idea trying to
understand what it really means and
having a look at some of the amazing
things that we do actually see in nature
so natural by definition means things
that occur in nature in the world of
plants and animals and I’m not
suggesting that we are exactly the same
as animals but obviously not we do lots
of things that are not natural we drive
cars and we talk on phones and we wear
clothes and technically if you’re going
to argue it that way straight marriage
is not actually natural because you
don’t see animals getting married unless
you’ve got an Etsy account and too much
time on your hands but you don’t see
anyone protesting it’s straight weddings
on the basis that they’re not natural
because that would be ridiculous the
idea that everything natural is good and
unnatural is bad is something called the
gaia fallacy and it’s very easy to
disprove because cyanide is natural that
doesn’t mean it’s good for you so
clearly that argument falls apart but it
did actually get me wondering do we see
homosexuality and bisexuality in animals
and the answer is yes we do
homosexuality has been documented in
more than 1,500 different species of
animals and in a third of those
regularly everything from Asian
elephants to African elephants to Lions
giraffes dolphins penguins dragonflies
and every species of great ape our
closest ancestor
that’s orangutangs gorillas chimpanzees
and bonobos
in fact in bonobos the vast majority of
individuals are bisexual and 60% of
mating behavior happens between two
females homosexual animal couples also
raise young in New York’s Central Park
Zoo there are two penguins called Roy
and silo two males who formed a romantic
pair and a zookeeper saw them trying to
hatch a stone he also had an egg left
over from a heterosexual couple who are
not nesting it so he gave that egged Roy
and silo and they took turns nesting it
and they did a great job and it hatched
into a healthy female chick called tango
and as it turns out
tango grew up and also happened to be
gay their story was written up into a
children’s book called tango makes three
and it’s used to teach children that
love is what actually makes a family so
clearly we do see homosexuality and
bisexuality in animals it’s all about
things like trans or non-binary what
else is natural before we go any further
we have to understand the difference
between gender and sex so to do this I’m
going to use this illustration by Sam
killerman it’s called the gender bred
person informative and delicious this
shows quite clearly the difference
between your gender identity that’s who
you are your orientation that’s who love
or are attracted to your sex which is
your physical body and your gender
expression that’s how you dress each of
these things is a spectrum not a binary
and by that I mean it’s all shades of
grey it’s not black and white it’s easy
for us to understand that gender
expression is a spectrum because
sometimes I wear trousers and sometimes
I wear a skirt your orientation is also
a spectrum
just because I’m bi it doesn’t mean that
I like men and women all the time
equally in the same way for the same
reasons it’s more complicated than that
and it can change over time as well your
gender is also aspect
there are lots of people who will
identify as a hundred percent male or a
hundred percent female but there are
plenty of people who will identify with
aspects of both gender or neither or
maybe queer or gender fluid but gender
is a social construct it doesn’t exist
in animals so from now on I’m only going
to be talking about biological sex now
in humans broadly speaking our sex is
determined by our chromosomes so in
biological males they look like this an
X and a Y chromosome in biological
females we have two x chromosomes it’s
very important to remember that even at
this fundamental level there is
variation there are people who have
extra sets of chromosomes people who
have different combinations or people
who are intersex who have both sets of
genitals so even the thing that we may
consider a binary simply is not but
broadly speaking we can say that sex is
determined by chromosomes in humans so
is this true of all animals let’s have a
think about the birds and the bees
starting with the birds birds do have
sex chromosomes but males have two the
same and females have two different the
opposite of humans so already we can see
that our human model is not the norm in
bees it is radically different there are
three types of bee there’s a queen who
is a female there’s a worker who is also
a female and then there’s a drone those
are the males so when you see a colony
of bees working away those are all
females the male’s don’t do any work I’m
not making any kind of social commentary
here please I’m only talking about bees
so the males are only born in order to
have sex and then they die it’s a short
life and a queen mates once in her life
and then she stores the sperm and that
means that she can control very
precisely whether she’s laying a male or
a female because if she fertilizes the
egg then it becomes a female and if she
doesn’t then it becomes a male it also
means that male bees have no
father which is a very strange fact to
try and wrap your head around you can
see why it’s studying the animal world
really forces us to question our most
fundamental assumptions about sex and
about reproduction another assumption
that people often have is that male
animals have a penis and female animals
don’t and that’s not even true in humans
but it’s also not true in animals this
is a female spotted hyena can hear some
giggling at the front brace yourselves
[Applause]
the female has genitals which are called
a pseudo penis is actually a modified
clitoris and it looks just like the male
genitalia except it’s larger she also
gives birth through it which is quite an
achievement both males and females can
have erections and that is actually a
sign of surrender or submission so
that’s an interesting take on a behavior
that we in our human ignorance might
tend to associate with dominance now so
far the animals we’ve talked about have
permanent sexes by which I mean they’re
either male or female and that doesn’t
change over time but in many animals sex
is more fluid and it does change that’s
what we call a sequential hermaphrodite
one example is a clownfish in a school
of clownfish there’s usually only one
female she’s the biggest fish and she’s
the top-ranked in the hierarchy so she
is very important and if she dies then
the next biggest fish which is a male
turns into a female to replace her it
would have made the movie Finding Nemo
entirely different
there are even animals which are both
sexes at the same time my favorite
example is the banana slug its latin
name is da loco phallus which means
enormous penis in Latin so you know what
they’re famous for and actually it comes
out of their forehead like some kind of
pornographic unicorn I love biology now
all of them have both sets of genitals
male and females when they want to mate
they form a beautiful yellow yin-yang
like this and each inserts its male
organ into the female organ of the other
but it’s so large that quite often it
will get stuck and when that happens
they have to work together to chew it
off
I don’t want to alarm you but sea slugs
take it a step further their genitals
are sharp like a spear and they stab it
into the side of the other individual in
a process called traumatic insemination
and yes it is traumatic
this harms the receiver but it benefits
the giver because it means that the
other individual has to carry the young
in flatworms which you can see here this
has evolved into a competitive behavior
which is known as penis fencing the
animal world is obviously incredibly
diverse we see a whole lot of different
behaviors in some animals they’ve
dispensed with the battle of the sexes
entirely and there’s only one sex this
is a desert grassland whiptail lizard an
animal in which there are only females
there are never any males they lay eggs
which are unfertilized and those hatch
into their daughters more females in a
process called parthenogenesis but
what’s really interesting is they don’t
lay eggs all the time they only do it
when they’ve been mounted or climbed on
top of by another female
there are even animals in which there
are more than two sexes this is a
creature called tetrahymena thermofoil
a– it’s a single-cell animal and it has
seven different mating types which
functionally are exactly like sexes now
that may seem really shocking and
bizarre but there are animals which go
even further or organisms I should say
which go even further this is a fungus
called skits a phylum communy and it has
not seven different mating types but
twenty-eight thousand so if you were
asked it’s a phylum community fungus on
tinder you would have a real bad time
the world of nature is diverse and
eye-opening and amazing clearly biology
cannot be used to justify bigotry in
fact I would say the opposite is true
the more we look and study the natural
world the more we are forced to question
our own most fundamental assumptions if
you remember only three words from my
talk let it be as follows this all of
this this is natural thank you very much
as a science communicator I know that we
took in a lot of information just then
and I like to summarize my talks in ways
that are short and memorable and funny
so I’d like to summarize what we’ve just
learned in the form of a rap when you’ve
got the natural send this trap too
recklessly heck on me almost I think the
specialty is a foolish move you should
be careful especially with the words you
choose because this this girl is loose
control over the news and science in
defiance of your views so let’s break it
down what is natural it’s what actually
happens in non-human animals to
cannibals what happens in nature doesn’t
mean that it’s desirable behavior so
clearly there’s no basis to this sexist
little pieces but I’d like to break it
down and then we’ll pick up the pieces
because I want to pick apart the many
ways in which it’s wrong sit back and
relax the students
now remember we’re not talking about
gender just sex
gender is a spectrum it’s more complex
when you think of sex
it’s more between your legs it’s more in
sperm and eggs the X Y and X X but check
the text you find this extra set so
don’t forget the rest there’s also
intersects so never know assuming that
it’s simple in humans in animals is even
more confusing so let’s talk about the
birds and the bees – the word on the
street is the Fiza more real expertise
that our bees need and the colonies are
all female and when the Queen needs a
cup of free bells she lays and
fertilized eggs that means male bees
never have a father
the only born to have sex with the new
Queens then they die living life like a
vulture this is just the start because
when you look at what the sex is it
falls apart
to say what a sex is it can’t be hard
because there’s plenty of animals where
they have Birchbox like banana slugs
the method is madness lobster love
because they’ve got da letto phallus
both have a penis like a really weird
form it’s on the head like some kind of
phallic unicorn and that’s natural I
love that I’m really adding filler
here because I love that bit but my
point is that nature is gonna so
perfectly
[Music]
may have left you astounded kids another
creature that has 28,000 that’s right
the skits of Island fungus it salty must
be humongous back to mammals because we
act like animals we think we’re rational
when in fact we’re vulnerable here’s a
radical fact your sexual member doesn’t
have too much respect for your gender
for example some ladies they have a
penis but time you choose humans but
also hyenas they have the pseudo penis
lots of modify clitoris and they give
birth through it maybe a little bit of a
masochist can you imagine this another
fun fact about the matter is when either
sex is submitting they erect their
member like a little white flag of
surrender biology is wild
mad diverse I think there’s only one
thing left to say in this verse let’s
check it audience and what their
knowledge is and never piss on a
bisexual biologist right here
you
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