I was interested to read Dr. M. A.M. Siddique’s letter under the above heading in The Island of Monday 13th July.

Firstly, I am grateful to Dr. Siddique for describing me as ‘learned’. I would not have described myself as such but so be it.

I would like to take issue with some of the points raised by Dr. Siddique. I will not address all of the points I would have liked to as The Island is a family newspaper and they could be considered indelicate and offensive to many of the readers of your distinguished publication.

However, I would like to observe that homosexual behaviour between human individuals is not restricted to males as believed by Dr. Siddique. Human females also engage in homosexual behaviour.

Human females engaging in homosexual behaviour are termed ‘lesbians’. The word ‘lesbian’ is derived from Lesbos, a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. Sappho, who was born sometime between 630 and 612 B.C. in Lesbos, wrote tremendously emotional poems addressing other women. The poems are believed to have been inspired by homosexual love. It is said that, due to this interpretation the island of Lesbos is visited frequently by lesbian tourists.

Reference to Wikipaedia, the online encyclopaedia, also furnished the following information:

1) "Homoeroticism refers to the representation of same-sex love and desire, most especially as it is depicted in the visual arts and literature. The term ‘homoerotic’ carries with it the weight of modern classifications of love and desire that some contend did not exist in previous eras. Homosexuality, as we know it today, was not fully codified until the mid-20th century, though this process began much earlier."

2)      The category ‘Homosexual behaviour in animals’ includes ‘sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding and parenting’. It notes that a) a 1999 review by researcher Bruce Bagemihl shows that homosexual behaviour has been observed in close to 1500 species ranging from primates to gut worms and is well documented for 500 of them and b) a new review made in 2009 of existing research showed that same-sex behaviour is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species.

Although one is at liberty to dispute the precise figures, it appears to be well established that homosexuality does indeed exist among at least many species of animals.

Finally, I would like to take issue with Indian astrologer, Sushil Kumar Kaushal’s use of the term ‘even animals’. I have personally encountered animals, for which I have much more respect than some of their human counterparts.