LGVMA Crosses the Pond

News of Professor Roughgarden's groundbreaking lecture has now reached the gay press in Europe:

Trans academic challenges Darwin's evolution theories

The annual meeting of America's Lesbian and Gay Veterinary Medical Association has heard a damning critique of the sexual selection theories of Charles Darwin.

Joan Roughgarden, a biologist at Stanford University, says that the accepted notion that male animals compete for mates, while the females choose males with care, is "locker room bravado projected onto animals."

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Gay news source Metro Weekly reports that Dr Roughgarden's appearance at the Lesbian and Gay Veterinary Medical Association in Washington DC is another sign of increasing confidence in being out of the closet in a profession that is perceived to be deeply prejudiced.

The LGVMA annual meeting was held as the American Veterinary Medical Association's held its annual convention.

"This was the first time we've advertised to the broader convention," Tim Withers, a former president of the gay group, told Metro Weekly.

Not sure if I would agree with the part about "a profession that is perceived to be deeply prejudiced. " -- I certainly never used those words or that type of language in describing today's AVMA to the Metro Weekly reporter. But still, nice to get some coverage overseas.

We are still lobbying the Washington Post about writing the story after they had expressed interest a few weeks back.

Roughgarden lecture featured in local gay press

From Metro Weekly, a Washington DC GLBT publication:

Birds and Bees
Gays make headway at veterinary convention
by Will O'Bryan

"The mood in the basement ballroom of the downtown JW Marriott seemed fairly sedate Sunday afternoon, July 15, as Joan Roughgarden of Stanford Univesity presented her lecture, ''Sexual Diversity in the Animal Kingdom.'' But there was more going on than met the eye. In a sense, there was a revolution playing out on two fronts.

The more obvious of the two was Roughgarden's talk, challenging the ''sexual selection'' leg of Charles Darwin's theories of evolution.

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The more one ponders Roughgarden's research, the more revolutionary it seems. But it was the setting of her lecture that illustrated the second, smaller revolution. Roughgarden's talk was the keynote lecture of the Lesbian and Gay Veterinary Medical Association's annual meeting, running concurrently with the American Veterinary Medical Association's annual convention, held in Washington July 14-18.

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''It was an incredibly major event in several respects,'' says Wells. ''It was the first time that I'm aware of at an AVMA conference that the issue of sexual diversity in the animal kingdom has been discussed.''

Wells calls Roughgarden's presentation ''a call to arms'' for scientist to be truthful about their observations."

Read the whole article at Metro Weekly.

Roughgarden Lecture: History in the Making

TODAY as part of the LGVMA's 13th Annual Meeting in Washington DC, Professor Joan Roughgarden of Stanford University presented a fascinating lecture entitled "Sexual Diversity in the Animal Kingdom". Prior to the lecture, Professor Roughgarden told the LGVMA:

“This talk is especially timely,” Roughgarden says, “in view of the Oslo Museum exhibit on homosexuality and animals that opened in 2006, which has been widely reported in the press. It would be wonderful if all the information on domesticated animals could be folded into the wider zoological picture that is emerging. What is coming out now is to the rest of the animal kingdom what the Kinsey Report was to humans.”

Prof. Roughgarden's lecture was well-attended (over 40 folks of all stripes) and well-received. Afterwards, Prof. Roughgarden said she was delighted by the turnout, found the audience to be very attentive, and thought the questions from the audience to be very insightful.

Many attendees stayed afterwards to thank Joan for her work and her lecture, and to purchase Evolution's Rainbow at the book-signing set up by Washington DC GLBTQ bookstore, Lambda Rising.

The event was videotaped and we hope to make the recording available as either a DVD or online. Our goal is to make sure the valuable information and insights Prof. Roughgarden presented today can reach as wide as audience as possible. Please contact us at LGVMA@lgvma.org if you are interested in receiving a copy of this valuable -- and indeed historic -- presentation, or if you would like to contribute funds for the production/distribution.

This event was partially sponsored by grants from the PETCO Foundation; Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS); PETS-Washington, DC; Wag Hotels - San Francisco; and Pets Unlimited Veterinary Hospital and Shelter. Many thanks to them as well as individual donations from LGVMA members and friends.