Poland’s Gay Elephant Faces Politico’s Backlash

The past few years have seen gay rights legislation proposed, then ignored and shot down, inside Poland. But establishing marriage and anti-discrimination law there is just about human beings. But what about banning discrimination against animals? Namely, elephants.

Meet Ninio, a gay elephant who recently moved into the Poznan Zoo, which spent more than $11 million building a new structure to house the pachyderms. But city councilman Michal Grzes was expecting the money would fetch a “herd” of elephants — something that Ninio, who spends his time with other boy elephants, isn’t likely to help produce.

“We didn’t pay 37 million zlotys for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there,” he says. “We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?”

Except Grzes might’ve jumped the gun: Ninio is only 10 years old, says the Poznan Zoo’s chief, and thus just a tween in elephant years. He’ll hit sexual maturity at 14, and maybe then he’ll start swinging the other way. Or both ways?

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Adds the Daily Mail: “Male elephants do engage in same-sex bonding and mounting. Such encounters are often associated with affectionate interactions, such as kissing and trunk intertwining. Males, who in elephants live apart from the general flock, often form ‘companionship’s’, consisting of an older individual and one or sometimes two younger, attendant males with sexual behaviour being an important part of the social dynamic.”