Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Okay, so one of the more common bad faith

arguments I've heard from homophobes is that same-sex relationships are not natural, you know,

that it doesn't happen in the animal kingdom as if we should be taking our cues for running

society solely based off what animals do.

But it's also like patently untrue, right?

Animals are out here having all sorts of sex just like the rest of us.

Those relationships are at the core of Elliot Schrafer's new book.

It's called Queer Ducks and Other Animals, the Natural World of Animals Sexuality.

And there's a part in this interview where he tells NPR Sasha Pfeiffer that studying this actually moved him, you know, that there was almost a radical level of acceptance found

in nature.

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At its worst, a nonfiction science book about animal sexuality could read like a dry biology textbook.

But that's not the kind of book Elliot Schrafer wrote.

His book, called Queer Ducks and Other Animals, The Natural World of Animal Sexuality, is designed to be

teenager-friendly, for one thing. It's a young adult book filled with comics and humor and accessible

science, and it's filled with research on the diversity of sexual behavior in the animal world.

Elliot Trafer is with us to explain more. Welcome, Elliot. Hi, I'm really happy to be here.

We're glad to have you. I really like the way you structured your book. It's basically an animal per chapter in a way.

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