GAYNETTERS -- SOMEONE WAS ASKING ABOUT THIS RECENTLY. I WROTE
THIS ARTICLE 11/22/89. REX WOCKNER


GAY SHEEP COME OUT OF THE CLOSET
by Rex Wockner

        Eight percent of the male sheep at the United States
Department of Agriculture's Sheep Experimental Station in Dubois,
Idaho, are gay, officials confirmed in late November.

        "These animals are homosexual. They are responding
physically to how they are," explained Anne Perkins, a doctoral
student at the station who is completing her dissertation on
"Reproductive Behavior In Rams." Station officials deferred to
Perkins when asked for details on the matter.

        "It's a very interesting model and we can learn a great deal
about homosexuality from it," Perkins said. "They are not morally
or culturally or ethically behaving like humans. These sheep are
just doing what their bodies are telling them to do."

        Homosexuality among animals is "nothing real unique,"
according to Perkins, who said gay sex has been observed in 63
distinct mammalian species. "It's not considered aberrant in farm
animals at all," she said.

        The gay sheep, like some gay men, practice anal intercourse,
according to Perkins, although some achieve orgasm simply by
rubbing their penis around another male sheep's tail.

        There is, however, a serious social problem currently in gay
sheep culture in that most gay sheep, Perkins said, only want to
be on top.

        "The difficulty for homosexual sheep is that it's difficult
to find another male who will stand still," Perkins explained.
"If there is a ram that is hurt or caught in a fence, then they
can mount him, but otherwise there are so few receivers that it
becomes difficult for homosexuals to express themselves."

        Only two of the gay sheep in Perkins' study population don't
mind being on the bottom. "They tolerate it," she said. "They may
have been the wimps that got beat up so much that it was easier
to tolerate it than anything else."

        Lesbian sheep, meanwhile, are apparently wrestling with a
major "invisibility" problem in the gay sheep world, a difficulty
that has plagued human lesbians too.

        "It's very difficult to look at the possibility of lesbian
sheep," Perkins explained, "because if you are a female sheep,
what you do to solicit sex is stand still. You don't mount. So,
it's very rare that a female sheep would mount another female
sheep."

        "Maybe there is a female sheep out there really wanting
another female," Perkins speculated, "but there's just no way for
us to know it."

        In addition to the rams who are practicing homosexuals,
another eight percent of Perkins' ram population fail to express
interest in any kind of sex. 

        "They have a very low libido," she explained. 

        Two percent of the gay sheep, meanwhile, begin dabbling in
bisexuality following one year of exclusive homosexuality,
Perkins said.

        Researchers don't have many theories yet about why some
sheep are gay, but Perkins says she is convinced that the animals
are genuinely homosexual.

        "We're not embarrassed or ashamed of this," she added. "But
we do hope it doesn't get twisted and distorted in a way that
could do harm to the United States Department of Agriculture."

        Perkins will receive her doctorate from the University of
California at Davis later this year.


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