After fifteen years of working in zoos and aquariums across the country, I have heard the following phrase countless times: “I work with animals because I don’t want to work with people”. This sentiment is uttered with an astonishing frequency, almost as frequent as architects placing exhibit drains at the highest point of our exhibits. What this sentiment betrays however is that our work with animals relies on inspiring guests and other people to care more about the wildlife at zoos and aquariums. The conservation movement is just that: a movement which requires people to see themselves in the conservation work that we do at zoological facilities. In order to inspire the greatest amount of guests that visit zoos and aquariums, we must be mirroring the diversity that exists in our communities so that all guests who come to our facilities can see themselves in our work.

Growing up as a child, I was fascinated by the work being done at my local zoo and couldn’t wait to be a part of this field which was striving to protect wildlife and their habitats across the globe. I was certain that I wanted to dedicate my life to conservation and worked diligently up the ladder from zoo camp counselor to my current job today. What I was less certain about was my own sexuality, which was something that I grappled with for years, often times in silence.

While I had incredibly supportive coworkers and mentors in the field, I had incredibly few examples of out gay men in my own life to whom I could turn to discuss issues like how to manage being a part of the LGBTQ+ community and also excel in the zoological field. By the time I was secure in my own gay identity and came out publicly in 2013, I was well into my dream job of working with animals and fearful of how my personal life might impact my career. This was seven years before the United States Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County which determined that employers could not fire employees for identifying as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, which meant that my coming out at the time could have jeopardized my burgeoning career (Totenberg, 2020). Thankfully my employer at the time did not bat an eyelash at my news, however I often wonder if having more out gay role models in my own life that were in the field could have assuaged my fears of coming out in an environment that historically wasn’t the most representative.

It is an interesting feeling being on the other side of the coin now as a thirty-something gay man in the field, and building upon the work already done by others in the field for greater queer inclusion, while also pushing for even more LGBTQ+ representation in the field. Perhaps the most important way having LGBTQ+ representation in zoos and aquariums impacts the world is by challenging heteronormativity. Heteronormativity can be defined as “the power relations, knowledge and institutions that sustain normative constructions of heterosexuality as ‘natural’ and privileged” (Yonder and Mattheis, 2016). This idea that heterosexuality is the only natural state and normative standard for the world has permeated everything from politics to the professional realm. As open and out queer people in the zoological community, we immediately challenge the heteronormative framework within our profession and society as a whole.

In order to understand why LGBTQ+ visibility and representation matters in zoos and aquariums, one must first grasp why diversity is essential for these organizations in the modern era. Diversity in environmental organizations, including zoological institutions, is critical because it helps when making informed decisions regarding the work that a particular institution undertakes (Johnson, 2019). The broader the background of the staff at an institution, the better they are able to handle the challenges that all organizations inevitably face, such as those related to programming, fundraising and education. In addition, diverse staff reaches out to members of the public historically underserved (Johnson, 2019). Zoos and aquariums are trying to connect as many people to wildlife as possible, and therefore need to have their conservation messages reach the widest audience possible.

LGBTQ+ staff members are better equipped to reach out to queer members of the communities in which zoos and aquariums are located, and therefore are better able to communicate those needs back to their respective organizations. Queer people are better able to connect with other queer members of the larger community, and better able to translate the messages that zoos and aquariums are trying to spread, to audiences who are LGBTQ+. A diverse staff allows for zoos and aquariums to form strategic partnerships outside of their organizations, and to LGBTQ+ individuals, who potentially can contribute to these organizations’ fundraising and development (Johnson, 2019). Therefore, having a diverse staff at a zoological facility is extremely beneficial for these organizations’ conservation messaging and connecting to the widest audience as possible.

Sometimes I wish I could show 1990s John how far the world has come over the last thirty years in terms of queer issues. And while I think that we have come a long way as a profession and as a society in terms of LGBTQ+ representation, inclusion and advocacy, I think there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done. While I am incredibly proud of institutions for flying the Pride flag each June, I think we can do better in terms of queer issues for the other eleven months of the year.

One helpful step is the creation of employee resource groups, like the one we have in the Wildlife Conservation Society, which strive for greater queer inclusions on all levels of the organization. Zoos and aquariums are doing better in terms of representation, but it would be great to see them actively discussing non-heteronormative behavior in their animals as a way to negate the criticism of the queer community. And much like the work of conservation is never truly over, we too must continue the work of LGBTQ+ inclusion in our field in order to make the zoological profession as representative as possible.

Only when all people see themselves in the conservation work done by zoos and aquarium will wildlife truly benefit.

Photos credit: ©Julie Larsen Maher, Wildlife Conservation Society

WORKS CITED

• Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia (US Supreme Court June 15, 2020).
• Johnson, S.K. (2019, June). Leaking Talent: How People of Color are Pushed Out of Environmental Organizations. Retrieved from https://www.diversegreen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Green_2.0_ Retention_Report.pdf
• Totenberg, N. (2020, June 15). Supreme Court delivers major victory to LGBTQ employees. NPR. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/863498848/supremecourt-delivers-major-victory-to-lgbtqemployees
• Yoder, J.B., and Mattheis, A. 2015. Queer in STEM: Workplace Experiences Reported in a National Survey of LGBTQA Individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers. Journal of Homosexuality, 63(1):1–27. doi: 10.1080/00918369.2015.1078632