Opinion
Gay lions touch a roar nerve with Kenyan official
Dr Ezekiel Mutua thinks the pair of male lions snapped mating in the wild need counselling. Perhaps he does too, writes Bambina Olivares
If there's one thing that infuriates a homophobe more than two men making out, it's two lions making out.
An image of two male lions getting it on, taken by a wildlife photographer at a reserve in Kenya, has got one particularly outspoken homophobic government official in Nairobi apoplectic with an Old Testament kind of rage, the fulminating, finger-wagging, eyes-popping-out-of-their-sockets sort.
It's an abomination of nature, he railed, the end of the species! They must be demonically possessed, he concluded, because crazy gay lions are not normal in the animal kingdom!
If our lions begin this homosexual behaviour then that will surely be the end of the animal species. https://t.co/JL5wGR4NHW
— Dr. Ezekiel Mutua (@EzekielMutua) November 2, 2017
Hold on to your bra straps, Dr Ezekiel (of course he had to have the name of a biblical prophet - it justifies the righteous indignation he feels) Mutua.
Judging from the resplendent mane of hair framing the respective faces of the animals as one, perhaps the more dominant one, the plus alpha among kings of the jungle, mounts the other, we can assume they are both adults. They may have already savagely taken over a pride or two, impregnated a few lionesses here and there, and no doubt killed their fair share of zebra, giraffe and buck.
As adult males, and rather experienced ones at that, we can assume that they are old enough to roar their consent to this form of sexual congress; there might have been a few grunts beforehand to decide who would be the bottom and who would be the top, unless nature took its, er, natural course, and Mufasa took his natural position as lion king - while Simba seems to be enjoying being on the receiving end. Unfortunate choice of names, but can you think of another famous lion's name not related to the Disney family?
Dr Mutua thinks the lions may have been influenced by - gasp! - amoral human behaviour, mimicking gay men who might have dared one day to have sex in the middle of the Savannah
Despite Dr Mutua's protestations, does anyone really think the devil made them do it?
Dr Mutua thinks the lions may have been influenced by - gasp! - amoral human behaviour, mimicking gay men who might have dared one day to have sex in the middle of the Savannah while a bunch of lazy lions, bored after a feast of wildebeest, watched them humping each other and thought, hmm, why don't we try that next time, boys?
He also thinks the crazy gay lions need counselling. Oh Ezekiel, I think it's you who's gone a bit loco. And you say they need to be isolated for observation?