You can’t stop true love.
According to the Daily Mail, that’s the lesson animal experts at the Berlin Zoo have learned from Stan and Ollie, two king penguins who were supposed to be part of the zoo’s penguin breeding program. Instead of mating with female penguins and perpetuating their species as zoo officials hoped they would do, Stan and Ollie pair-bonded with one another.
Yep. Stan and Ollie are gay.
A representative for the zoo told a German news outlet, “They're gay, as far as we know. They never bred. And when it came to courtship, they only mated with one another.”
Gay penguins are not an unknown phenomenon. There’s a great story about two gay penguins who were given an egg of their own to raise. It inspired the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, in case anyone is looking for a nice story to read to their kids about penguin love.
The zoo keepers have decided to move Stan and Ollie out of the program (and I assume they’ll bring in some straight dude penguins to pick up the breeding tasks). They’ve been moved to another zoo in Hamburg, where they’ll live with a group of other male penguins, including another bonded gay couple.
So, it’s a happy ending for Stan and Ollie. They get their own little penguin love nest with a couple of nice gay penguin neighbors. Maybe they can live the gay penguin cliche and have penguin brunch and watch penguin HGTV. Or maybe they think I’m a dick for stereotyping them. OK, they’re right. I’m being thoughtless and now I’m being judged by gay penguins everywhere. I suck.
Regardless, I’m sure we’re all wishing Stan and Ollie a happily ever after in their new home!
