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  • Hi Bill. This is Jason Gots from Big Think. I’m reading a question that somebody submitted

  • in written form who wished to remain anonymous. But it seemed like a question that it would

  • be good to have you answer. "I have a question about homosexuality," he asks. "If the purpose

  • of a species is to reproduce and survive, how would it make sense evolutionarily for

  • humans to have same sex preferences? Are humans the only ones who practice homosexuality?

  • And if so does this mean that homosexuality is a product of human’s personal whim as

  • opposed to instinct?"

  • So when I was growing up there was this controversial and super bestselling book called The Naked

  • Ape. And this guy, the author, Desmond Morris claimed, I guess he documented that there

  • is homosexual behavior among primates. And from what I remember – I haven’t read

  • it in many yearswas chimpanzees and Bonobo’s exhibit homosexual behavior. And the answer

  • nowadays we give to everybody about this is it’s a spectrum. I don’t know about you

  • but I have known a great many gay men who are married, who have babies, who have kids.

  • So apparently – I’m not an authority on this. I’m an observer of the human condition.

  • Apparently there’s a spectrum. Some people are more inclined to have sex with people

  • of their same sex than others. And I think if you just watch the news right now you can

  • see that for yourself. And so being somewhere on the spectrum of heterosexual with homosexual

  • being on that it’s not genetically lethal, you still have kids anyway. And youll hear

  • people talk about the feminine side. Youll hear people talk about the masculine side.

  • Youll hear women use the expression well she’s got a lot of balls which can’t literally

  • be true if were using balls in that conventional construction. So I would say that it’s something

  • that happens in nature and I remember very well in this booknow I haven’t read

  • it in a long time but man it was a big deal. Openly talking about sex in the 1960s was

  • a big deal that he claimed that there was more homosexuality in zoos than he observed

  • in nature. And that may be just because we happen to capture a couple of homosexual Bonobos

  • or whatever. In other words the sample size is way too small to extrapolate. So let’s

  • celebrate being alive everybody. Apparently it’s just something that happens in nature

  • and look, were all here.

Hi Bill. This is Jason Gots from Big Think. I’m reading a question that somebody submitted

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