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.
But humans are animals, saying we are somehow completely separate from all animals and that there are no similarities in behavior (including sexual behavior) would be misleading. There ARE many other species that engage in homosexual behavior beyond simply mounting an animal of the same sex. Penguins of the same sex who decide to adopt an orphaned chick and coparent is a great example. Many bird species mate for life, or for many years, with a bird of the same sex. This seems very much comparable to the nature of homosexuality in humans. It is not merely for pleasure, it is a matter of it aiding survival and reproduction (not of the same sex couple obviously, but often of a family member).
There is a “scale” in humans and cats, in reference to homosexuality. Regarding male cats, when a female goes into heat, and sometimes it is when her offspring has been killed or died naturally; she has specific ways of signaling her uncontrollable natural animal behavior. It is involuntary. It is how nature works and to be very clear, In some animal species the female is the lead in a pack of wolves for example as well as a lead “duck” in flight formation. There are homosexual cats in nature and it has nothing to do with survival. If a male cat is the alpha, he does not allow other male cats that are displaying interest in the females cats. I totally understand how the author has come to the theory that a gay male cat in this reference will be subordinate to the alpha male and stay in the area for survival however, if the male cat has a desire that is involuntary in nature to react to females sending signals for reproduction, the other male cats will go and find there own territory. They will not stay and simply play a gay role by rubbing against (non sexual) the alpha male and revealing his homosexuality in nature. A male cat that reacts to female signals cannot help themselves and his nature is revealed. Humans and animals are very connected in the sliding scale and a few same sex encounters does not make any of them “gay” what-so-ever. The animal and human nature are very connectable and the observations in science community in Penguins, Mallard ducks, and Bonomo monkeys are great examples to reference in scientific nature.
I have A cat who isn’t neutered who’s mated recently for the first time and I’ve had him for almost a year now (I got him as a kitten) & I recently got a new kitten. He’s 5 weeks old and My great uncle keeps making homosexual comments about the 2 and at first I didnt Think anything of it but, please help give me figure out if the older male cat will “dominate” my kitten.
I do believe he will. I have two cats also same as your story, one is a kitten and my other older male will not stop biting him and mounting. My cat also has a favorite stuffed animal that” keeps him busy” lol
Noice!!