Interactive: Meiosis in Animal Cells

This interactive from LabXchange has students scroll, click, and learn about meiosis in the context of reproduction. It uses language that is precise and inclusive of diverse human families, while also teaching the concept broadly enough to apply to other living things.

Queerspawn Resource Project

The Queerspawn Resource Project develops and compiles resources that reflect the complex, authentic, and intersectional experiences of people with one or more LGBTQ+ parents/guardians and advancing advocacy work that furthers inclusion of queerspawn and their perspectives. Resources include children’s and adult book lists, allyship guidance, a language guide, and media collections.

Gender-Inclusive Pedigree Charts

Pedigree charts are one of the most requested topics that we get from visitors to our website. We have built a guidance document below that will be continually updated. You can also view it on Google Docs.

Image https://www.theknowledgeroundtable.com/tutorials/decoding-pedigrees-made-easy/ What is a pedigree chart? A pedigree chart is a diagram that shows the occurrence of phenotypes through several generations of genetically related individuals. Because a pedigree chart is often confused with a family tree, and uses symbols to differentiate males and females, it is important for educators to give clear and inclusive messaging to their students about these charts.

80% of gay swan couples successfully raise their young, compared to 30% of straight swan couples. (Gender Showcase, 9-12)

Life-long pair-bonded male-male couples of the species Cygnus atratus will raise an egg together donated by a female.

Male-male black swan parents are more successful.

80% of gay black swan couples successfully raise their young, but only 30% of straight swan couples successfully raise their young.

Black swans (Cygnus atratus) also form stable male-male pairs that last for many years. Gay swans may even raise offspring together as a couple. A female may temporarily associate with a male-male pair, mate with them, and leave her eggs with them.

By sharing the workload more equally, male-male parents access better nesting sites and territories than straight couples.

The male couple then parents the eggs and is reported to be more successful than a male-female couple because together they access better nesting sites and territories, sharing the workload more equally than between-sex couples.

A full 80-percent of the gay couples successfully fledge their young, compared with 30 percent for straight couples. (EN19)

(EN19) L.W. Braithwaite, 1981, Ecological studies of the black swan: III. Behavior and social organization, Australian Wildlife Research 8:135-46.

Citation: Roughgarden, J. (2013) Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press, Berkeley. p. 136.

Update (5/24/23): Thanks to J. Boeheme at Science TV Australia for clarifying these papers are about black swans, not all swans.