HERE’S an amusing twist to the same-sex adoption row we blogged about earlier today: a pair of gay penguins at Germany’s Bremerhaven zoo have successfully incubated an unwanted egg, and are now raising the chick.
Gay dads Z and Vielpunkt
What’s more, neither of the foster dads is bound for Hell.
Freethinker reader Dr Robert Stovold informs us that:
I typed ‘Gay penguins’ and Jesus into Google (possibly the oddest combination of search terms I’ve ever used?), and found that Yahoo! Answers has helpfully clarified the theological implications of all this.
The best answer on Yahoo to the question Are gay penguins going to Hell? was:
All of the lesser creatures do have souls and will be in Heaven … All animals go to Heaven because they do not know right from wrong; animals are sinless so, yes, these two gay penguins will go to Heaven when they pass on. People have to accept Jesus to get into Heaven but animals are different …
According to this report – brought to our attention by John – the male foster dads, named Z and Vielpunkt, are one of three same-sex pairs of Humboldt penguins at the zoo. That means almost a third of the zoo’s 20 penguins are gay.
Same-sex penguin pairs have also been observed at zoos in Japan and New York.
Keepers at Bremerhaven zoo couldn’t get two penguin parents to take care of their egg, so they’re tried an experiment and gave the egg to Z and Vielpunkt.
Said zoo veterinarian Joachim Schoene:
The biological parents always rolled the egg out of their nest – they kicked it out again and again. Then we made the decision not to give it up and instead try to give it two fathers.
So far, the experiment has been a success. Z and Vielpunkt incubated the egg for 30 days until it hatched, and they have continued to care for the newborn chick.
A similar experiment was performed at New York City’s Central Park Zoo in 2004. Two male chinstrap penguins named Roy and Silo incubated an egg together and raised the chick, called Tango, when she hatched.
The cover of And Tango Makes Three
According to Wikipedia, the American Library Association reports that And Tango Makes Three – a children’s book inspired by Roy and Silo – was the most complained about book of 2006, 2007, and 2008. Among its fundamentalist Christian detractors was Candi Cushman, Education Analyst for Focus on the Family Action, who said the book was far from a “true story”.
It’s very misleading and it’s a very disingenuous, inaccurate way to promote a political agenda to little kids. What they’re not telling kids is that the supposedly gay penguin who is the star of this story later mated with a female penguin in real life.
In April last year the Daily Mail reported that And Tango Makes Three, as well as King and King, were removed from two Bristol primary schools after Muslim parents kicked off.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
June 7th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I fell about laughing at Candi Cushman`s comment here! Turns out one of the "supposedly gay" penguins just happened be bisexual after all then, "in real life", just like a lot of "normal" people – hahahahaha!!!
June 7th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
See also the very amusing http://www.platitudes.org.uk/p.....ex.php?m...
June 8th, 2009 at 12:57 am
That's awesome
June 8th, 2009 at 1:35 am
What they’re not telling kids is that the supposedly gay penguin who is the star of this story later mated with a female penguin in real life.
I love how they always try to pretend a bisexual who mates with someone of the opposite gender (temporarily or long term) is somehow suddenly "straight" or "ex-gay" rather than just a bisexual who is with someone of the opposite gender. Ironic that Cushman should make the claim that the book is being disingenuous when it is the RRRWers who are doing so.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:54 am
Just for the sake of completedness, there is a coda to the saga of the removal of "Tango Makes Three" and other educational resources from a primary school in Bristol, which Barrie mentions in his article. Tense talks between the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society and the Equalities Department of the City Council, mediated by LGBT organisations, did eventually produce an agreement by BMCS to stand down its opposition to the books, which were reinstated, but not before the belligerently homophobic and anti-immigration Bristol Evening Post had tried to use the case to whip up their customary fervour. Non-Muslim homophobes also clattered into the arena, including the self-appointed Green Party candidate for Ashley ward, Tony Gosling, known for his 'Christian' paranoid theories about freemasons, Jews, and homosexuals. (To their credit, the Greens suspended this character pending an investigation into his far right links). Since that time, BMCS has not launched any further campaigns against gay people and the educational resources are back in all Bristol primary schools.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:28 am
But when they come back to life in Heaven, will they still be gay???
June 8th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Very funny. I was working on something similar myself, but I couldn`t beat that! I expect there`s some organization somewhere (probably in America) that can help these poor creatures to find the way to a normal penguin lifestyle (with Jesus` help, of course), so we can only hope that they get all the counselling that they need. After all, God only hates the penguin sin: he loves the penguin sinners! I`ve never come across "Platitude of The Day" before, but I shall be having a look at it now. Thanks.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:42 am
For some reason, every time I read her phrase "supposedly gay penguin" I just collapse in helpless laughter!!
June 8th, 2009 at 7:51 am
I can just imagine some obscure "hadith" that states: "Let the penguin that is gay be cast out from amongst you: do not let other penguins come near him nor have relations with him: do not tell your children of him: he shall be stoned to death: his behaviour is an abomination and a shame, and he shall bring a curse upon the whole colony."
June 8th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Too bad we can't communicate yet with these pinguins; nobody seems to be interested in their part of the story.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:30 am
P-p-p-pick up a Penguin has taken on a whole new meaning!
June 8th, 2009 at 9:52 am
It seems odd that it should be scruffy grey Humboldts rather than Emperor/King penguins. I mean yellow and black just, oh, soooooo go together.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:23 am
There was a sweet little story some weeks back about a pair of beautiful male blue ducks who fell for each other despite both being offered a female mate. I wonder if Rod Hull's emu is their David Beckham?
http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/new....._Male_Du...
June 8th, 2009 at 10:31 am
There was a sweet little story some months back about a pair of beautiful male blue ducks who fell for each other despite both being offered a female mate.
I wonder if Rod Hull's Emu is their David Beckham.
http://www.myfoxcharlotte.com/...../News/De...
June 8th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I'd have thought Candi Cushman, as a good Christian, would have known that there's a long history in the US of Christian same sex penguins bringing up abandoned kids, with enough pointless corporal punishment to keep any godbotherer happy.
My source – the Blues Brothers. Doesn't ANYONE here recall the name Elwood had for the head nun!
June 8th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Wasn't there a nature documentary film in the cinemas a while ago which American Christians were citing as setting a good example for the ideal good Christian family? I think that the logic was pretty tortured but in any case the existence of gay penguins seems to have put that theory well and truly to bed.
I remember stuart H., Elwood called her the penguin and her weapon of choice was a three foot blackboard ruler, my bottom was somewhat familiar with those I remember.
June 8th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Wasn`t "Candi Cushman" a character in "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas"? It`s a great name, but perhaps I`m mixing her up with someone else there!
June 8th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Doesn't ring any bells, and IMDb comes up blank. Perhaps you are confusing her with Candy Christian in the novel 'Candy' by Terry Southern. One of the funniest books I've ever read.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
It was just a joke remigius! These people always seem to have such absolutely hilarious names – Candi Cushman, Rabbi Tosh, Wiley Drake (over on theBEattitude)!! Sorry to have wasted your time!
June 8th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I've always thought Mike Judge was a cartoonish name for a fundie fringe-group director.
Jerry Fulwell was always just missing an 'aw' before his surname, and Lynette Burrows – To quote Davis Aaronovich, 'Even her name suggests a pathological need to hide from the truth'.
June 8th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
What about "Jimmy Swaggart"!!
June 9th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Cockhoppers the lot of em!
June 9th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
When I was a young man, some friends of mine had a little girl who was rather precocious, to say the least, and always embarrassing her parents! The bus route into town passed a convent, and one day, as the bus waited outside the building, two nuns came down the road and went inside. The little girl, who was on the bus with her mother and watching all this, turned to her and said, in a voice that everyone on the vehicle could hear: "Look, Mummy! That`s where those two big birds have gone!!"
June 11th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Don't be silly… the gay ones won't go to Heaven™.