There’s a big news story this week about a famous San Francisco gay couple who have broken up. One of the guys has been keeping company with a recent rich widow.

The gay couple are Harry and Pepper, penguins at the San Francisco Zoo who have been living as a couple for six years now. They have even incubated eggs together – abandoned by female penguins at the zoo – and have hatched at least one.

The rich widow is named Linda, whose late mate was something of an important penguin in their circles and had a rare second nest. He left his bereaved widow with some valuable California real estate, relatively speaking.

So after six years of same-gender bliss, it seems Harry has thrown over Pepper for Linda. Harry and Linda have taken up residence together, and Pepper is beside himself.

The media jumped right on the story. The more standard media outlets presented the story as their cute animal story of the day, like the elephants that paint and the 75 pound house cat. Tonight, those wacky animals and their sexual identity crises.

Financial media coverage pointed its over-analytical finger and says that homosexuals will go straight for the right amount of money. I call this the Anne Heche rationale, and even with penguins there might be some grain of truth to it.

Christian media coverage pointed its ever-sanctimonious finger at the penguins as proof that nature favors heterosexuality. I suppose they believe nature favors incest because that’s what the bonobos are into, or that nature favors murder because lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), hippopotami, elk, chimpanzees, elephant seals, Siamese fighting fish, bighorn sheep, crocodiles, and many others kill their own kind.

Gay media coverage pointed its oh so delicate finger at Linda as a home-wrecking selfish bitch and hopes Pepper rebounds with a younger, hotter male penguin. Frankly, I think Harry and Pepper are scamming the widow Linda and will end up back together again on those nice side-by-side nests.

What gets me is that all the media coverage – even the Christian media – takes the story more or less in stride. Sure, the situation as it pertains to humans is usually treated with a little more weight, especially if it’s a Hollywood or Washington, D.C. couple. But I see it as a good sign that such a topic is so easily broached nowadays.

So kudos for mass media. Whether they are reflecting society’s increasing acceptance of and interest in gay relationships, or imposing their own acceptance onto their readers, they’re nonetheless bringing it up as conversational news. Tolerance is giving way to acceptance!

Six-Eye Jackson

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