Daphne Willemsen

The next type of suppression is self-suppression.

And that's just where you know what you've seen, but you don't try to write it in the scientific literature, or you don't try to publish it.

Some people are just homophobic.

A great example is Valerius Geist, who wrote of the bighorn sheep.

It made him cringe to conceive of those magnificent beasts as queers.

Luckily, he came around, and he eventually did have to conclude that they live in an essentially homosexual society.

I do want to say I don't personally hold all scientists accountable for self-suppression.

The other reason people might display self-suppression is because at the time it was illegal to be gay.

And so if you were researching gay animals, there was a chance you would be accused of having an unnatural interest in the topic.

Finally, we get to avert suppression.

This is your classic censorship.

It's done by people in power.

So think journal editors, granting bodies, or the government.

Dr. Linda Wolfe is a primatologist who tried to publish her paper where she had found that Japanese macaques are having a lot of lesbian activity.

She was accused of falsifying her data and doctoring her photos.

So they're not allowed to be lesbians.

So let's say you find some beautiful homosexual behavior in nature, and you've overcome subconscious suppression, self-suppression, overt suppression.

How do you then publish your paper while still maintaining the belief that homosexuality is unnatural?

That is where judgmental language comes in.

Science is meant to be neutral.