Gay Rights for Penguins

BNE: Gay rights campaigners adopted a new cause today in the shape of six male penguins in a German zoo. Six homosexual penguins, in fact, all very happy to be waddling along in their same-sex relationships. The director of Bremerhaven Zoo, Heike Kuuck, is in hot water with gay rights groups over her policy to try to mate gay penguins with female penguins, and thus turn them straight. The birds in question all had very strong bonds to other birds of the same sex. However, when they simulated mating with each other, and sat on small egg-sized rocks, as a mother penguin does, it was time to try real mating. The gay birds were separated and put with female partners. Nothing happened. The male penguins pined for their same-sex partners and had no interest in the females. Ms Kuuk has defended her experiment on the grounds of penguin preservation, “We're simply trying to help save a threatened species.” She denied accusations that she was trying to ‘cure’ them of being homosexual and make them heterosexual. The Humboldt penguin is native to Chile and Peru, and is on the endangered list of species. It is close to extinction. The homosexual tendencies of these charming birds are well known to zoologists.

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about penguins / animal rights / gay rights / gay penguin rights / zoos / same-sex relationships / endangered species…

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. PENGUIN BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with penguins. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. HOMOSEXUAL BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘homosexual’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

4. PENGUIN RIGHTS: With a partner pretend to be penguins. Write down three things you believe to be your penguin rights (perhaps similar to human rights). Talk about these. Change partners and share your penguin rights. Change partners enough times until you have a Penguin Rights charter. With a final partner, you must defend these rights. Your partner will say they are all nonsense.

5. OPINIONS: Talk about these with your partner:

1. Penguins have rights.
2. We should not keep penguins in zoos.
3. If penguins are homosexual, then we should respect their sexuality.
4. Talking about penguins’ sexuality is ridiculous.
5. It’s OK to try to change a gay penguin into a straight penguin if it ensures the survival of the species.
6. Gay rights activists are going too far in protesting about gay penguin rights.
7. It’s important for kids to talk about gay penguin or gay animal rights as it will reduce homophobia.
8. The gay penguins should be ‘cured’ of homosexual tendencies.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘gay’ and ‘rights’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements about the article are true or false:

1. Gay rights campaigners adopted six homosexual penguins as a new cause.  T / F
2. The penguins are in same-sex relationships.  T / F
3. A zoo director took a very hot bath.  T / F
4. A zoo director tried to encourage gay penguins to mate with female penguins.  T / F
5. Six male penguins met six female penguins and fell in love at first sight. T / F
6. Six homosexual penguins forgot about their same-sex partners after they were introduced to some sexy female penguins.  T / F
7. A zoo director wanted to ‘cure’ the gay penguins of being homosexual and make them heterosexual.  T / F
8. It is most unusual for penguins to be homosexual.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Gay Rights for Penguins

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students c ircle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘GAY’/ ‘RIGHTS’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:
What do you think of this article?

1. Do gay penguins have rights that need protecting?
2. Do insects have gay rights?
3. Are gay rights groups over-reacting here?
4. Isn’t protecting the gay rights of penguins the same as protecting their other rights?
5. If people think protecting gay penguin rights is stupid, they are probably homophobic. What do you think?
6. Do you like penguins?
7. Do you feel comfortable talking about homosexuality?
8. If you had two penguin pets and they were gay, would it be a problem?
9. If someone asked whether or not you had homosexual tendencies, what would your reaction be?
10. If someone asked whether or not you had homophobic thoughts, what would your reaction be?
11. Is it possible to change a penguin’s, or a person’s sexuality?
12. Do you like zoos?
13. If trying to force gay penguins to mate with female penguins is the only way to ensure the survival of the species, then it should be done.
14. How can we help save the Humboldt penguin from extinction?
15. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on gay animals. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. LETTER TO HEIKE: Write a letter to Bremerhaven Zoo director Heike Kuuck telling her what you think of her actions.

4. PENGUIN CONSERVATION: Write a short article informing the world of what needs to be done to save the Humboldt penguin from extinction.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. Gay rights campaigners adopted six homosexual penguins as a new cause.  T
2. The penguins are in same-sex relationships.  T
3. A zoo director took a very hot bath.  F
4. A zoo director tried to encourage gay penguins to mate with female penguins.  T
5. Six male penguins met six female penguins and fell in love at first sight. F
6. Six homosexual penguins forgot about their same-sex partners after they were introduced to some sexy female penguins.  F
7. A zoo director wanted to ‘cure’ the gay penguins of being homosexual and make them heterosexual.  F
8. It is most unusual for penguins to be homosexual.  F

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

Gay Rights for Penguins

BNE: Gay rights campaigners adopted a new cause today in the shape of six male penguins in a German zoo. Six homosexual penguins, in fact, all very happy to be waddling along in their same-sex relationships. The director of Bremerhaven Zoo, Heike Kuuck, is in hot water with gay rights groups over her policy to try to mate gay penguins with female penguins, and thus turn them straight. The birds in question all had very strong bonds to other birds of the same sex. However, when they simulated mating with each other, and sat on small egg-sized rocks, as a mother penguin does, it was time to try real mating. The gay birds were separated and put with female partners. Nothing happened. The male penguins pined for their same-sex partners and had no interest in the females. Ms Kuuk has defended her experiment on the grounds of penguin preservation, “We're simply trying to help save a threatened species.” She denied accusations that she was trying to ‘cure’ them of being homosexual and make them heterosexual. The Humboldt penguin is native to Chile and Peru, and is on the endangered list of species. It is close to extinction. The homosexual tendencies of these charming birds are well known to zoologists.

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