I mentioned an interview with Joan Roughgarden about her book, Evolution’s Rainbow : Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, in which she documents homosexuality in “over 450 different vertebrate species” and discusses the evolutionary impact of that discovery.  I was glad to find PZ’s discussion of the topic.

Roughgarden is an awkward case that provokes a difficult split in people’s opinions. She is 100% right that homosexuality is common and that its prevalence ought to be regarded more seriously as an indication of an interesting and enlightening phenomenon in evolution. However, she’s completely wrong in rejecting sexual selection: in rejecting a simplistically heterosexual view of nature she swings too far the other way, adopting a simplistically homosexual view instead of a messy, complex, and almost certainly more correct mixed view. She’s rather superficial in her treatment of Darwin. And most annoyingly, she has a bad habit of playing the transgender card and accusing her critics of disagreeing with her because of some LGBT bias.

He does a fantastic job discussing both Roughgarden’s assumptions as well as his own thoughts on the topic as a biologist who knows a great deal about evolution.  It’s a must read.