How should we talk about gay animal sex?

An excerpt from the lesbian Laysan comic on same-sex sexual behavior in animals

I’ve been thinking a lot about how science talks about same-sex sexual behavior in animals- really about animal sex at all- because I find myself writing a book about animal sex that’s decidedly…unsexy? Because there’s this rush in academia to ascribe an adaptive value to sexual behaviors- naming them seemingly everything besides, well, SEX. And I think within academia, ascribing emotions and complex interior motives to animal behavior is not reinforced in the peer review process. In fact, it’s discouraged.