Researchers at the University of South Alabama (USA) want people to know that "Queer Animals Exist! It’s just biology." The Comparative Cognition and Communication (C3PO) Lab is a program of the USA Department of Psychology promoting queerness through research on "queer animals."
“Our goal is to further destigmatize queerness through communication of scientific findings of animal researchers regarding queerness in the animal kingdom,” reads the lab’s resource page, which is available via its Instagram account.
The C3PO lab, operating as its own research lab at USA, also has the stated goal: “understand our world and the animals we share it with just a little better.”
According to its public materials, the lab highlights examples of same-sex behavior, non-monogamous mating systems, and intersex traits in various animal species in the wild.
Dr. Heidi Lyn, the lab's main researcher, also manages the C3PO Lab Instagram, where she regularly posts about queerness in animals. Lyn is an associate professor, and Joan M. Sinnott is chair of Psychology within USA's Department of Psychology.
Lyn also promotes intersex species, which do happen naturally in the wild, but are often cited by activists to promote the broader arguments for gender ideology and diversity.
The main research page of the C3PO lab does not mention queerness or intersex; instead, Lyn posts on its Instagram and Facebook accounts about specific cases. The research lab also links to a document of “queer animal resources”.
This research document lists different animals and their “queerness,” including the “homosexual interactions in bed bugs,” “four flowering plants that have been decidedly queered,” “cuttlefish win mates with transvestite antics,” and “hand pollinating pumpkins.”
The first reference in the document is a book entitled "Queer ducks (and other animals)."
The book's table of contents poses riveting questions such as, "Do we learn homosexuality or heterosexuality, or just unlearn bisexuality?" and "Are dolphins just gay sharks?"
The Instagram page lists the “top 10 queer animals of 2025” and references the queerness of monogamy, primates and ducks.
Trenton Buffenbarger is a senior at the University of Alabama and is the Chairman of the UA Young Americans for Freedom.
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