Last Updated on April 13, 2020
Now, this is a question that a cat lover may ask themselves after seeing a dominant male “take over” another male OR a female cat completely disregarding males. This article is not meant to offend anyone, so please do not take it that way. I will simply be giving the answer and explaining why. So, can a cat be gay?
The short answer is no, a cat cannot be gay.
The more complex answer is “not exactly“.
Exception to Laws of Nature
When viewing homosexual acts and even cannibalism in felines, they can be viewed as exceptions to normal behavior. There is a difference in exceptional behavior and instinct. When a cat appears to or even takes on homosexual behavior, it is not out of their genetic instincts but rather things they simply are doing. Confused? When a monkey throws its poop it is not out of instinct but merely an action it chooses to do. Outside events cause this to happen, not internal instincts. Homosexual humans say they are “born this way” and I am not disagreeing but this also further proves how different sex can be between animals and humans.
Instincts and Survival
A cat’s instincts are not based on physical laws that govern the physical world. All living beings can adapt and change to any given circumstance with a set amount of time. Cats respond to internal and/or external stimuli. A good example is that not all cats hate water. Given the circumstances, be it for food or weather, a cat will learn to accept swimming and being in water as a means to survive. The fear (internal) and sight (external) of water are overturned and the cat adapts as a motive of survival.
Censorial Perception
A cat’s mental process is only censorial in that it is limited to sound, smell, touch, taste, and vision. They lack the precision and clarity that a human’s intellectual perception has. A cat will confuse one sensation with another or one object with another. A male cat may confuse a neutered male cat for a female as the strong natural scent of the male urine is not present. An animal’s instincts are intertwined with its nature. Changes in the environment can greatly change an animal’s natural receptors such as other images or perceptions and/or memories can act as a new change in the environment affecting the animal’s natural behavior. The conflict between two or more instincts is likely to override the animal’s original impulse.
Intellectual Choice
So how does this prove cats can’t be homosexuals? In man, when two instinctive reactions collide, the intellect determines the best choice to follow out and the will then dismisses one instinct while encouraging the other. Cats will see two instinctive impulses around one problem and because they lack our kind of will and problem solving, they will choose the one that is favored by the current circumstance or environment. They base their instinctive impulse purely on survival, not a choice of intellect as humans do. Sometimes these internal or external stimuli affecting a cat’s instinctive impulses result in parents killing their offspring, cannibalism, and homosexual acts.
Cats act on instinct, not making intellectual decisions
Our Perception Doesn’t Change the Laws of Nature
Homosexuality in animals can be explained as to how “we think” we perceive it. To human eyes, a male dog mounting another male dog can be seen as “homosexuality” when in reality they do this to express dominance. When two male animals or two female animals engage sexually it is a demonstration of power, not sex, or it is simply an instinctive impulse bent toward survival or, confusion from the clashing of two senses. What we as humans fail to understand is that an animal’s instincts are geared toward reproduction and survival, nothing more. Although homosexual behavior is very common in the animal world, it is unheard of that animals have the desire to continually partake in homosexual behavior for very long. To say a cat can be gay by instinctual choice and compare this to human homosexuality, we would then have to say humans too have this choice. It is in misunderstanding that people try to compare human and animal behaviors as if the two were the same. The laws of human behavior vs animal behavior are entirely different in nature.
Any animal has a right to be gay! I love dogs and I know some dogs are gay! As much as I hate cats,this is a very interesting paragraph! You should make a puppy love website!
It’s not a question of rights, nobody is trying to suppress gay animals. Cats cannot be gay and neither can dogs.
You seem well-informed, so let me ask you… It is said that (especially with dogs) pets can be influenced by their owners’ habbits/ behaviour… Does that mean that a cat could be stimulated towards homosexuality if, say, it was exposed to homosexual images? Would its owner being gay affect the matter in any way?
Cats are wired for survival. Nothing we say, do, or how we act will influence them to change their instincts on reproduction. Cats don’t have sex, they mate. There is a difference. While some animals may have sex (intercourse for pleasure) cats do not. They simply do it to further their population. Also, cats don’t view our sexual preference in any way. The only way they know we are having sex of any kind is through scent and smells of pheromones. Our physical actions tell them nothing. This is not to say they aren’t smart but rather wired differently. They look at us as fellow cats, someone to play with, sleep with, and receive food from. Because we don’t give off their kind of pheromones for mating, they do not seek to mate with us thus they learn nothing sexual from us. Most house cats (owned) are also fixed making this even more impossible.
I see. Thanks for taking the time to answer! I enjoyed your article, by the way!
So the logical question derrived from your text and from this comment is that since cat can’t be homosexual in a human way, can they be straight in a human way? What would be the characteristic or the lack of such that answers positively or negatively to this?
One such would be familial bonds. Do cats form familial bonds of biological (=1 male, 1 female) parents and biological children for survival? If kitten upbringing (biological and non-biological) is a mother issue only, without any male bio-father involvement, then it should be safe to concluded that cats cannot also be straight in such a sense.
But even if familial bonds do exist, sexuality of cats cannot be concluded. Because it would be like two friends raising their child, while nothing sexual goes on between them.
My hypothesis from all of the above is the cats can’t be labeled neither gay nor straight.
What you say sounds correct. Sexual orientation is understood in humans due to what gender we are sexually attracted to, male cats don’t choose a female based on their features or how “attractive” they are, any female in heat will do for them. The female will mate with many males as well, also a survival instinct.
To us, cats would appear appear to be straight but there is no sexual attraction involved, it’s all survival instinct.
The point of the article is can cats be gay, this is an obvious no.
Im glad some people understand animals aren’t homosexual. I sort of disagree that animals aren’t like humans though , but I do agree that most of their lives are just based on survival. Thank you for making this article , it helped alot.
I have two n cats and just this month ceria has started to donate Rasputin and try to take him as a female what can I do on is 14 Rasputin and is a small cat the other is 10 IAM worded about them
It’s strange but I kind of agree with this article, and I’m gay. Animals I think just aren’t capable of experiencing relationships and attraction in the sophisticated way that humans experience it, and like you say, animals such as cats are more instinctual. They have a need to survive to a point where they eventually mate, and house cats, despite being domesticated, haven’t evolved past the need to survive and reproduce like humans have. Yes they have behaviors and personalities that make them exceptional as animals, but that doesn’t make them human. Humans are on another level as far as social interaction and romantic relationships are concerned. A lot of primal and instinctual rituals are somewhat similar in courting a mate, but the dynamics into how and why we choose a certain mate are vastly different. So can cats be gay (at least as far as to say that cats are exclusively interacting sexually with a same-sex partner)? My answer would be a big MAYBE. It definitely warrants further study. I will say though that homosexual behavior among house cats is definitely common and not unheard of.
Thanks for your comment Luke. I agree that there is a lot more to be studied on this and I am sure it will be in the future. As of now it is down to perception of how we view them and what we know about their instinctive behaviors.
I think this feature really sells the intelligence of cats very short. Their ability to love humans is very complex. – I had as many as six cats at one time, and despite an available female two male cats seemed to pair off and engage sexually as well. Their friendship bond and sexual play was their own choice and made the pair unique in my eyes. – It is some of the human readers who are short-sighted if they think anything less of any cat that follows their own free choices of pairing and play.
Thanks for your comment Paul. I am not sure how you got that the article was writing off cats as unintelligent. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I have 2 male cats who we have always said are gay, because they hump eachother, lick eacthother, and always sleep together. Now I’m thinking it’s probably the thing you said that they’re probably confusing eachother for females, as they are both neutered.
retarded post, my parents have 3 cats (two males, one female) the males are clearly in a gay relationship (i have stumbled upon them doiny theyre buisniss) your artical is unresearched and biased. it wouls be funny to find the company owning that stock photo and report it to them so this shitty, unresearched and biased artical off the net.
(im no feminist and im not triggered but i find people that write unresearched articals are a waste of time… but please come with your “you are triggered” and “just accept the facts” comments, i find them hilarious 😉 )
I also have 3 cats, all male, and a male do as well. 2 of my cats are clearly in a sexual relationship, and I have also stumbled upon them getting it on. They sleep together, clean eachother, and hump eachother. I definitly think cats can be gay, and I agree that this article is completely unresearched. Oh, and my other male cat is in some kind of relationship with my dog, and my 2 gay cats are treatng him as an outcast. I’m not sure if my dag and my cat are in a gay relationship, or if they’re just friends. But my cats are gay as fuck.
Thanks for your comment Ella. As mentioned a lot of what we think or view to be sexual is not always the case and animals are intelligent but under the right circumstances they will adapt. You can have a similar situation that of prison inmates. Both male and female inmates have been known to turn to same-sex sexual acts to “adapt”. Seeing as you have 3 males, this very may well be the case. Cleaning and sleeping with each other is not a sexual thing at all, it is bonding. Cats of different ages from the same or different litters will clean and lay with each other when adapted to this through indoor (non-feral) breeding. This can mean male and male, female and female, or male and female. Humping and actual penetration are two different things as well. The simple act of a male humping another male has nothing to do with sexual intercourse in the male’s rectum. He is seeking out reproduction and likely isn’t penetrating anything. The other cat is likely not apposed to it because the pressure the other male puts on him feels nice, like a back pet from your hand. A cat’s main focus will always be reproduction (unless spayed/neutered)) and survival. This is why many researchers have stated a cat would eat its dead owner before starvation. If you interpret your cats as being gay that is your right and why I left the question open. I like to read what other people think of their cats 🙂
So my boy Mr.Cat is fixed (got him done at five months old) doesn’t’ spray, great boy he’s now going on two years old, But the asshole who is strictly an indoor cat, tries to get loose cause there this big old tom cat hanging around and spraying my house, well the one time he got loose he made friends with this cat they talk to each other through the windows and i seen some strange behaviour between the two my cat isnt a fighter so i was worried this unfixed cat was going o beat the crap outta him but nope didn’t happened my cat even tried to get this other cat in the house!! Like can someone explain this cause i’ve never heard or seen this before!
Thanks for your comment Kaitlin-May! It sounds like your cat has formed an alliance with him. The unfixed male may have been abandoned. It doesn’t sound like a true stray who is feral. Is he afraid of you? I have taken in and cared for intact male cats and they can form friendships with other male cats but don’t mistake it for anything sexual. It is likely down to food and general companionship. Not all cats desire to be alone.
Sadly the outside male cat wont even come near me, he’ll hiss and growl, runaway, i wish he was friendly. I put some food out for him the other day tho just cause i felt bad for him it as cold and well i just wish he’d stop spraying my house too lol.
He must be a feral cat then. Feeding him will encourage him to continue to mark the area though. Since he knows he is getting food there, he will mark it off so no other cats come around to take his feeding place. You can try contacting a local cat shelter and see if they offer a fix and release service for ferals.
Thank god a normal person who explains that cat’s are not gay how humans want to force it I admire you and I want you as a friend so we can put people in there place together.
Thanks for your comment Gabby. I didn’t post this to put people in their place, just to explain my understanding of cats and natural law.
I still like your link because I get so sick and tired of how much people try to force the human world into the nature world they need to keep it apart it gets on my nerves.
That is understandable. We can learn from animals, but we can’t act like them nor force our own agendas on them.
Still I’m so glad that someone in the world knows that cats are not homsextuals and explains why they are not and says it is humans mistake that triggered it I get so annoyed by people that always say cats are gay they love each other and same with other animals it is not true I always argue against those people they annoy me but I’m so happy to know there is someone out there that thinks like me ^.^.
the article is wrong, it has nothing to do with the environment, animals besides just cats on a whole are mostly perceived as bisexual in other words naturally animals engage in sexual behavior to mate, if any animal was meant to show dominance it would be a form of an individual intimidating another to show a sign of leadership or fighting over territory. also, cats are different from other animals whereas other animals don’t have the need to show dominance in their nature. when you think about it, there are certain female lizards and/or other organisms who reproduce asexually though for the lizards the females don’t mate but do something human researchers assume as mating is more of an exercise to regulate reproduction. also, animals of all kinds display affection and not behaviors that is just only considered sexual such as lions for example.
Thanks for your comment spyro20. Can you send me the information about cats being bi-sexual? I never heard of that before. Cats are actually a lot like many animals out there who are not pack oriented animals. Polar bears, platypuses, skunks, and rhinos to name a few. Showing dominance is not always down to fighting. Some animals will actually dance. I am not kidding you. Read up on it. Every animal has their own traits in a natural habitat that make them beautiful. I left the article open as this is how I interpret it. This is why I ask if YOU (the reader) think cats are gay at the end. This is based on some science, my own experiences, and yes my own opinion.
well after doing through research, i’ve seen male lions demonstrate mounting each other even when there was a female lion present, for one thing though animals show affection so not everything is instinctual, i’ve read about a very old science report years ago that was conducted during the 1900s where a human child at a certain age was left in the wild who was tested on lesser human interaction research shows the child acted wild as though he/she were a wild animal. animals are like human where there is a time when both beings are born they’re hormones are acting up at a certain age, animals could possibly mate by just having a natural sense of increased sex drive like humans, you don’t have to be influenced to be attracted by anyone when you’re born, attraction to either genders comes natural from within possibly due to hormones or something thats permanent that can cause i person to be hetero, gay or bisexual. animals mounting each other are just actions thats performed by either gender with any gender. though one thing that requires further research is long term relationships between biological beings cause with humans i have done thorough research on our sexualities, in other words, sex isn’t everything but relationships, from my research with the lions it would seem male lions are most of the time showing affection for each other in groups or one on one, and its possible lions mounting on one another could just be a stimulated form of a high sex drive, in other words a male lion would mount a female lion and undergo a successful sexual process probably due to how the female lion’s body is positioned for the male lion to be able to penetrate the genital area, while a male mounting another male lion is less likely where i have seen most male lions’ bodies positioned in a certain way where there is no opening to the lion whos doing the mounting to penetrate i have also seen where one male lion tried penetrate another male lion but still unsuccessfully wasn’t able to do anything when usually the lion doing the mounting on another male lion does not last long, but a video i had seen was different where a male lion mounting tried to lower itself to penetrate an area on another male lion but couldn’t then gave up. there are people who have cats and say else wise, not every animal could be what we think they are but it depends unless thorough research is conducted long enough to get answers, most researchers don’t take the time out enough to do that and it could be possible some could lie about whatever it is they experimented on and bring out false information. it’s best to do thorough research for yourself and be honest with revealing the answers you find without covering up the truth you discovered.
I am glad you do your own research. Many people don’t these days. This is a bit of everything I have researched in one article/post. I suppose if you go looking for something being a certain way you will often find the answer for it but you then too have to consider the opposite answer. Lions are not like other felines. They are the only ones to establish a male run hierarchy with multiple females. Females are also the providers and hunters as well. For house cats, you want to compare them with tigers. They share over 96% of the same DNA.
Dear God shut up Gabby! Nobody is forcing anything. Cats are way too complex, especially for you to understand.
Okay I have a female cat and she’s the only one not fixed out of the three, and she also is the only one that goes up to my other female cats, and licks their butts. so I guess what I’m asking is what is she doing and is this normal?
Thank you for your comment Moira. Licking the back end (or any end for that matter) is just affection with cats. It has little to do with sexuality. Cats of the same sex will groom each other, specially if they have a better bond between them. As mentioned above, what we may think or view as sexuality in the animal world (in many cases) has little to do with sex. Cats do not know what “oral sex” is either. If she were to be doing this out of having gender specific attraction, she would be forcing/accepting other female cats doing this to her – not the other way around. When a female cat is in heat (which could be why she is being more affectionate with other cats) she will raise her butt towards a possible mate looking to attract them.
i haven’t neutered my cats, yet this one dominate cat always and always and always doing that homosexual thing (more than 3 times a day). how can u explain this? i can see with my own eyes his penis on his brother… hmm hmmm hmmm
Thanks for your comment AfiQah, I am not sure what you are referring to. You mean he is mounting his brother? How many cats in the home are female?
This is such a poor article. It’s as if you rewrote the entire thing. Oh, and btw, the image posted is copyright infringement.
Thanks for your comment Ted! You are entitled to your opinion, this is the internet after all. You are the second person to comment about the image. There is a link that directs you to the site to buy The Oatmeal’s book.
….say wahhhh?
I can’t Believe that cats are gay. but you article was Great and fun to read this.
I know of cats and dogs that only have sex with their own gender. An exclusive attraction to their own gender is often seen in male sheep. These animals have a brain with the same characteristics as the brains of gay men. The Dutch prof. Dr. Dick Swaab has published articles and a book about these phenomena.
My 2 spayed females are in love. Both girls grew up in a shelter till 5 years old. They both were abused terribly. THEY NEVER had any thing but abuse and until the shelter any care.
They are not biological sisters. They are unseparable. They groom and cuddle and are virtually inseparable. They are indoor girls and get lots of love but I find they hate male cats to a point of danger Had a friend over twice with a male and one the dominant one almost ripped him apart and he was twice as large. They don’t mind dogs but cannot tolerate male cats Any idea of what to do if I travel or have to leave them
SANDI WHITE ROCK BC
Thank you for your comment Sandi! Aww, I feel so bad when I hear about cats who got abused. I am glad you took them in and are giving them a nice home. What you are explaining is not being homosexual, but territorial. The more dominate female is protecting the less dominate one. If a male or even a female approached them and is being assertive in any way, she will react in anger. They could have also had bad interactions with male cats at a younger age. Some cats (and even dogs) will absolutely hate the opposite sex of any animal or even human. Cuddling, cleaning, and so on is common in the cat world with both male to male, and female to female friendships/family. A lot of what we see in the animal world is simply bonding and nurturing, not homosexuality. Many human friendships (more so with women than men) will involve the same things like cuddling, hugging, cleaning, and caring for one another in a non-homosexual way. It is just selfless love.
Since they have come from an abusive environment, I would recommend having someone either stay in your home and watch after them, or have someone check in on them once or twice a day while you are away. Taking them to a kennel or boarding facility may trigger depression or anger because of their past experiences. Just the smells of other cats are sometimes enough to stress one out who has been through abuse and heartache.
They just got a bond , but sexuel.
Hi, how about you don’t use comics from authors without proper attribution/linking/credit? Pretty sure that’s from the oatmeal…
Thanks for your comment Heather! You must have missed the part where I didn’t take credit for the comics. You may have also missed the bold “humor” tag right above said comics that links to a book where these said comics are featured. No biggie! Thanks for reading!
If its only to show domination then how come my cat now act so girly and cute whenever the other comes around @_@
Cats don’t know the meaning of “acting girly” or even “more feminine”. Personality traits in cats can make it appear this way to us, but it has nothing to do with a male being more “girly” or a female being more “butch”. These are terms we place on each other, sadly. A male cat acting more relaxed and easy going may look feminine to you but to him, he is just adjusting to what he believes his role is or what he feels is most acceptable. Some cats do this out of fear but others just have that kind of personality, to be naturally submissive like dogs. Does that make sense?
Well, I’m just curious about something. You see, the other day, I was petting my cat Louis, who’s a male, and there’s plenty of females out at my house, and one of them is/was in heat, and while his brother Tonto ran over and tried to mate with her, Louis didn’t even move, it was almost as if he didn’t care that she is/was in heat. His brother did, but he just stayed by me, even when I stopped petting him. That just has me curious as to why that is since when a female’s in heat, usually all the males going running to try and mate her. This also happened when another one of the females was in heat. His other brother Swipper kept going after he but Louis wanted no part in it. Any ideas why?
Thanks for the comment Zare. How many cats do you have in/at your home? Some cats will form a “pride” like dominance depending on the number of cats in the area. This means the stronger more “dominant” males will actually call dibs on certain females, claiming them as their own. He could have been told by one or several other males that she is off limits. Also, it depends on his age as well. As cats get older, they do lose some interest in reproducing and would much rather enjoy a nap. Sounds a bit like humans haha
I have these two cats, Stubby and Tigger, who are gay as HELL for each other. It’s like a fangirl’s OTP come cannon. They’re both neutered, but Stubby still likes to hump literally every cat he comes across. Including Tigger. Very often. Stubby’s made of pure muscle, like some football player, and Tigger is lanky and dorky. They’re such a cute couple.
Haha that is interesting. Cute names. I would love to see a picture of them 🙂
yes, cats are gay as hell