Australian gay magazine DNA reports on the falling flat of a Republican candidate who tried to use African animals to show that homosexuality was not natural.

A Florida congressional hopeful has found himself on shaky ground after invoking the animal kingdom to argue that no one is born gay, only to be contradicted by extensive research into giraffe mating habits. Rod Joseph, a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives, made the remarks during a meeting with the editorial board of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on 8 July.

Joseph reportedly stated that nobody is born homosexual and then pointed to nature as evidence. However, his choice of the giraffe as an example has proved particularly ill-advised, as the species is one of the most well-documented examples of same-sex activity in the wild. According to biologist Bruce Bagemihl’s 1999 book Biological Exuberance, which remains the key text on the subject, up to 94 per cent of observed mounting among giraffes occurs between two males. Female-female mounting accounts for just one per cent of recorded incidents. The study further notes that at any given moment, approximately one in every twenty male giraffes is engaged in necking behaviour with another male.

Same-sex behaviour has been recorded in more than 1,500 species – a figure popularised by the University of Oslo’s Natural History Museum during its 2006 exhibition titled “Against Nature?” The show’s academic adviser, Petter Bøckman, told Audubon magazine: “People always come up with the argument that homosexuality is somehow against nature. And that’s not true.”