Drawing upon a rich body of zoological research spanning more than two centuries, Bruce Bagemihl shows that animals engage in all types of nonreproductive sexual behavior. Sexual and gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship, pair-bonding, sex, and co-parenting - even instances of lifelong homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual bonding.

Brownson argues that Christians should reconsider whether or not the biblical strictures against same-sex relations as defined in the ancient world should apply to contemporary, committed same-sex relationships. He carefully analyzes each of the seven main texts that appear to address intimate same-sex relations, and in the process explores key concepts that inform our understanding of the texts, including patriarchy, complementarity, purity and impurity,...

In this book the author presents a history of heterosexuality, explores the contemporary psyche of sexual orientation, and shows how culture creates and manipulates thoughts and experiences of desire, love, and relationships. Like the typewriter and the light bulb, the heterosexual was invented in the 1860s and swiftly and permanently transformed Western culture. The idea of "the heterosexual"? was unprecedented. After all, men and women had been...