God doesn't make mistakes...

[Kitten]

but sometimes he sure likes to mix things up.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animal ... pt=hp_bn11

If this butterfly was made by God, why not homosexuals and transsexuals? What's the difference?

Or is this a butterfly of the Devil?

[Patsy]

Science has no place in being an asshole to queer people. The fact that living things other than humans have more, or less, than two sexes, that there are more, or less, than two ways to express biological sex, or that their reproductive abilities can change from one side to the other over time has nothing to do with their worldview. If the fact that anyone who knows enough about psychology, hormones or genetics acknowledges that transsexuality and intersexuality are utterly, utterly valid and natural in human beings isn't enough to make assholes stop being assholes, the wonder of the natural world outside of humans isn't going to do it.

(Really beautiful wing colours, too.)

[xDreamerx]

I guess animals and insects can be intersex as well?

+10 points to nature for telling religious people to suck it (plus 1000 internets). This is the coolest thing since those gay peguins. Awesome.

[Deleted02]

Yay nature!

[finleeport]

Half male and half female butterfly? that would be called a Hermaphrodite then, snails are hermaphrodites as well.

[twin2]

Oh, I bet the fundies will just say the Devil planted it to confuse and turn us away from god. Similar to when presented with fossil support of evolution.

[Childless]

Saw a documentary once on a woman who was genetically a man. She had an XY chromosome pair, but had a rare condition in which her body did not produce testosterone. Having only estrogen in her body, created a person that looked like the perfect female. She was gorgeous and her body was porportioned perfectly. She was absolutely stunning.

I wonder what fundies would think of her? She had female gentalia, but male chromosomes. So, is she male or female? In my opinion, she's whatever gender she decides she wants to be. Fundies try to cram everyone into some preconceived box that just doesn't exist in the real world. Nature has seen to that.

[turquoise]

That butterfly sounds a bit like a crab caught in the Chesapeake Bay a few years back.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02231.html

And for those who are interested, here's an explanation of how some animals can develop half male and half female.

http://www.daltonstate.edu/galeps/Gynandromorphs.htm

[Kitten]

Actually, a hermaphrodite has both male and female sex organs and can reproduce. Many animals, such as snails, and most plants are hermaphrodites. A gynandromorph, like this butterfly, has HALF female and HALF male organs. In the case of the butterfly, the sex organs are actually fused together. Gynandromorphs are sterile because of this - they don't have "complete" parts for either sex.

[jaelh]

. So, is she male or female? In my opinion, she's whatever gender she decides she wants to be.

Why do they have to be either?

[Patsy]

Time for links!

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ ... chor107763

http://www.etransgender.com/2011/03/com ... alies.html

http://www.birl.org/IntersexBrochure.pdf

http://tranarchism.com/2010/11/26/not-y ... trans-101/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex#Conditions

[Elle]

There are so many known variations of animals and people in ways that can not be chosen that I think people who ignore this are supremely stupid and willfully ignorant. No one can choose their chromosomes and all our current science can't change a person with a vagina and breasts but XY chromosomes into a woman with XX chromosomes, or a person with a penis who is XX into a person with XY (I actually knew a person who was physically a man but chromosomally a woman and didn't produce as much estrogen - he was a member of a poetry slam group I used to participate in, and he, as he was used to being called and said he always felt lost in identity, which was sad, never felt he belonged). In the animal world, dozens of animals exhibit gay and bi relations, and there's no one telling them to "go against the mainstream" or anything. But even when the PROOF is visible so that there's no chance anyone's "trying to make a statement," so many still deny it.