When you think of gay animals, you might come up with images from the infamous banned (and adorable) children’s book And Tango Makes Three about the two male penguins who raised a chick together. Or you might think of orgy-prone dolphins, or maybe Bonobos, whose species is fully bisexual.

But do you think about frogs, giraffes, bison, fruit flies, ducks, worms—and just about every species alive?

Same-sex behavior in animals, a science.com/animals/090616-same-sex-animals.html">new study published in the June 16 issue of Trends in Ecology and Evolution claims, is so common and present in almost all species, that it’s “nearly universal.”

Male dolphins, for example, will “facilitate group bonding" through same-sex behavior, while female Laysan albatross “can remain pair-bonded for life,” says Nathan Bailey, a University of California, Riverside postdoctoral researcher.

“The animal kingdom [does] it with much greater sexual diversity, including homosexual, bisexual, and nonreproductive sex, than the scientific community and society at large have previously been willing to accept,” reports Bruce Bagemihl, Canadian biologist and author of Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.

So the new question is not what species have same-sex behavior—but what minority species do not?

Given that humans are included in the animal kingdom, you gotta wonder why the heck we’re the ones who so adamantly oppose homosexual relationships within our own species so much. Of course, if we did embrace something as proven and natural as, say, science, we’d also have to accept the fact that sex isn’t—gasp!—only meant for reproduction, which would not only throw most religious institutions into chaos, but also cause the final decimation of already sexless, bored marriages.

I wonder if black swans sit around, squawking and arguing about whether or not they should allow a same-sex pair to raise a cygnet? Would it “confuse” the little tyke and scar him for life, making him swim in disco patterns—and would it be better to let him die parentless?

What about gay elephants—I seriously doubt anybody would want to mess with these eight-ton queens (which gives a whole new meaning to “Big girls, you are beautiful"). And I know there ain’t anyone who’s gonna mess with the 8% of male lions who are gay. You will end up as lunch, friend.

It’s like the whole “evolution debate” in the country—there’s really nothing to debate about, except maybe just how afraid people are of their own sexuality. And instead of being a national debate, that should probably just be something between you and your therapist, don’t you think? Take a cue from the Bonobos—live and let live, and get it on with whomever you (consensually) please.