After your wimmin -- er, chillun

Via GrrlScientist, there's this story about a same-sex pair of Greater Flamingos who were so good at caring for eggs that when a nest was abandoned, the two of them were the first choice to become the chick's foster parents:

A PAIR of gay flamingos have finally become proud foster parents after taking an abandoned chick under their wings.

...

[Carlos and Fernando's] egg-sitting and hatching skills impressed staff so much that when one of the Greater Flamingo nests was abandoned last week, they were considered the number one choice to "adopt" the chick.

...

"They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents."

The pair, who have been together for about six years, can feed their chick without any female help - by producing milk in their throat.

So, if we wish to commit an "appeal to nature", we could say that Carlos and Fernando are proof that same-sex couples can be devoted, loving parents.

Unfortunately, they also provide "proof" of the homophobes' worst fears: gays are out to steal your babies.

Carlos and Fernando had been so desperate to have chicks that they had resorted to stealing eggs to fulfil their unlikely dream of a starting a family at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.

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WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn said: "Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other Flamingos' eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves.

Finally, the argument that gays can't be allowed to have children because gays are worse parents than straights makes sense! Normally, gays would obtain children through: (a) adoption; (b) becoming foster parents; or (c) having children themselves via one of a number of techniques. In the case of (a) and (b), even if same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex ones--and there's no evidence that this is true--it wouldn't matter, because the environments these children are currently in are worse even than that of the dreaded gay household. And in the case of (c), this is a brand-new life, and never could have the "ideal" of a male and female parent.

Arguing that gays are worse parents than straights only makes sense if gays are known to take the children of straights and steal them away in the night. And finally, we have evidence that this is the case!