Kew Gardens, yes, *Kew Gardens*, says plants have "gender" not "sex"

[MmePoppySeedDefage]

I have been a member of Kew Gardens for a while. Every so often I get a magazine from them, and this unscientific bilge was in the latest edition. I've written and from the swift reply, obviously others have too. They mutter about fungus:

Thank you for your email. As part of Queer Nature, we explore how queer people find themselves in nature, and how a closer look at nature through a queer lens can challenge many pre-existing ideas about what is ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’.

While we recognise that human sexual identities cannot be applied to nature, we want to celebrate the fact that, as in humans, there is huge diversity in the natural world. Many plants and fungi have characteristics that do not fit within traditional forms of categorisation. Some examples include:
• Avocado - is one example of many plants which is fertilised when its own pollen finds its way from the stamens into the ovule, meaning it can ‘self-pollinate’
• Ruizia Mauritiana - found in the Temperate House at Kew, this plant can change the flowers it produces based on temperature
• Some citrus and many other flowering plants produce seeds by apomixis, they reproduce without fertilisation and, in effect, are asexual.

• Liverworts – these can reproduce asexually by means of gemmae, which means a single cell, or a mass of cells, or a modified bud of tissue, that detaches from the parent and develops into a new individual
• Fungi - Fungi don’t have what we would refer to as biological sexes at all. In human terms, they are also the ultimate pansexuals, engaging in sexual reproduction with any compatible member of their own species.
• The Splitgill mushroom (Schizophyllum commune) has been found to have more than 23,000 mating types.

That has to be the most ridiculous response any institute captured by this nonsense has ever given. I can't quite believe it's a scientific organisation of the standing of Kew which has authored it.

Sometimes the flowers are pink and feminine, but sometimes blue and masculine.
Is that how it goes?

So transplants are plants...right?

Indeed.
Mycologists of questionable morels.

None of that has anything whatsoever to do with "gender".

We've known about all the different forms of sexual and asexual reproduction for a very long time. They have nothing to do with humans or human perceptions of being "queer". The current champions of everything LGBTQIA+ seem to genuinely believe they are telling the world something new about nature, and that it's somehow relevant to human life and society.

Self pollinating flowers are not queer for Pete's sake. It's just a normal form of sexual reproduction in some plants. And there are no self-fertilising humans. Despite what angry young people tell me on Twitter.

I'd really like to know what some of the academic botanists really think about this. I suspect they're keeping their heads below the parapet, sadly.

Groan!

Also groan to the idea of a trranswoman who's a kinda fungi

Some are, like kidney beans for example.

A gay friend suggested a date at one of the queer events. I declined. I'm not queer, just an old-fashioned bisexual.

@Truthlikeness according to Kew, old-fashioned bisexuals have both male and female parts.

(It's possible there's a scientific meaning of "bisexual" that does mean "has both male and female parts", but Kew is perfectly aware that's not how their intended audience will read it, which I feel is rather dishonest of them.)

Hydrangeas change colour according to the acidity of soil. And yet no bearing at all on humans being various hues. Crazy huh.

we explore how queer people find themselves in nature

Isn’t it insulting to “queer people” to assume they are this self-obsessed and boring? Omg this fungus has 23,000 mating types it’s JUST LIKE ME - ok, some people sadly are that degree of narcissistic and insufferable, but wouldn’t it be nice to assume as a baseline that “queer people” have mastered the most basic adult life skill of paying attention to something outside of themselves?

I think some plants do change though? Pretty sure I've heard that before. Like some animals as well.

Not humans though.

Which is somewhat relevant if you are claiming that hermaphroditic plants have something to tell us about people who identify as queer.

You should read the thread. It is of course true that plants do lots of things that humans don’t do, including change sex (I think you accidentally a word.)

Don’t they just go outside - like everyone else?

Dear oh dear oh dear! A bastion of scientific research and they come out with tripe like this? It's Lysenkoism bloody redux!

I hope they've got someone sane looking after the orchids and bromeliads.

it is like some sort of horrible joke that we find ourselves having to explain that humans are not plants or fungi.

it’s no more relevant to humans that fungi can reproduce in many different ways than the fact that rocks can withstand extremely high temperatures or pressures is. It doesn’t change the biological characteristics of human bodies.

It’s depressing that so many humans can’t be interested in the wonder and variety of the world without tying everything back to the concept of human identity.

This is all so sinister. It's not about pseudo inclusivity it's the beginnings of rewriting science, nibbling away at the edges so that when anyone states biological facts at changing room intruders they have more ammunition to fight reality with.
It's utter bollocks trying to relate anything else to human/mammal biology. None of these plants change sex cos they want other plants to see them as another sex! It'll for scientific reasons probably survival based.
Even fungi need to find other "compatible" fungi.
We need a campaign for truth in public places- this is undermining reality and very dangerous.

The first rule of TQ+ is that everything is about the TQ+.

Even the sex lives of clownfish and fungi.

One might point out that slugs are true hermaphrodites, or that aphids and some lizards can reproduce parthenogenetically. But those modes have nothing in common with human reproduction.

So why fungi and clownfish?

This thread made my day! 😂

Are there no LGBT+ botanists, or naturalists? Or anyone else with a connection to nature in some way that would have made a more sensible (and also interesting) link to any of this?

There simply does not need to be any link to human identity politics though.

Plants and fungi are interesting in their own right. There are ways to help people bring nature into their lives that aren’t based in some almost narcissistic inability to care about anything but your own self perception.

I think these days this shit is where the money is. Look at the sponsors of the event, who are they? I bet they have ties to the TQ+. I will say again, theories belong in the lecture hall, not brought out in the world as reality. TQ+ are not plants or clown fish. They are mostly fetishistic men and girls with mental health problems. Neither of whom probably give a second thought to fungi.