Gay lions not gay after all; Slate hardest hit, but finds a fabulous silver lining

Brett T. | 8:50 PM on April 19, 2016

An award-winning nature photographer sent a thrill up the legs of the Huffington Post staff last weekend with “some spectacular images” of two male lions getting it on in the tall grass in Botswana.

As thrilled as everyone was to see photographic proof that there are gay lions, it turns out, to the disappointment of all, that one of the lions was actually a female with a mane. This, of course, was Slate’s opportunity to step in and probe deeply into lion sexuality.

These "gay" lions are actually *queer*, thankyouverymuch: https://t.co/rjVK18gtA9 pic.twitter.com/gAw1EMO49O

— Slate (@Slate) April 19, 2016

It’s obvious from the tone of Slate’s piece that it’s intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but you could very likely pass it off to your humorless gender studies professor as your final paper.

@Slate @instapundit
I know the writer is meant to sound tongue-in-cheek, & all.
But between the lines, she isn't all *that* tongue-in-cheek.

— EUROPE ESPÉRANCE ? (@europesperance) April 19, 2016

So, about that silver lining. The fact that the lioness has a mane is proof that the idea of a male/female gender binary has outlived its usefulness in the human world:

Just because his partner was assigned female at birth doesn’t mean he’s straight, either. Botswana’s lion scene has achieved a level of queerness the modern LGBTQ movement should strive to reach.

Thus, these lions portend a future we all knew was coming: the day when homonormativity reaches its mainstream apex, making gender, not sexuality, the foremost battleground for queer liberation … Soon, most of us will dispense with the concept of a binary gender identity, if we haven’t already.