For a very long time, any sort of sexual or romantic relationship that wasn't heterosexual was strictly taboo. In some countries, it still is. However, thanks to various civil rights movements and improved awareness, the LGBTQIA+ community as getting more recognition and acceptance. In fact, June has now been declared National Pride Month in recognition of those men and women whose sexual orientation and gender identity lie outside of the norm.
As part of National Pride Month, Animalia was offering discounts for any LGBTQIA individuals who wanted to convert. However, there was initially few takers on this offer. A large reason for that were narrow-minded politicians who have touting the Animalian virus as the 'cure for homosexuality'. While it has been made clear that the Animalian virus can only make people bisexual at most, there are plenty of people who were unwilling to let such a fundamental aspect about themselves be changed.
Eventually, Annie went online with a speech to assure the doubters. "Back when I was human, I was very lesbian and proud of it. My conversion into a zebra was more for medical reason than anything else. And after my conversion, I met this lovely stallion named Stuart who became my husband and subsequently the father of my child. And for some time, I thought I was being a hypocrite, going against everything I ever said before. But I'm still as attracted to women as I've ever been and sometimes, I go have fun with the girls. And really, being bisexual really just allows you to love anyone for who they are, man or woman. And I've met plenty of very happy couples who are the same sex, even after becoming Animalians. Animalians choose their partners because of who they love, not because of what their mating instincts tell them. If you truly love someone, that feeling won't go away just because you're half-animal. And maybe those who have been unlucky with love before, this could be a chance to find someone you haven't been able like that way before. Becoming an Animalia doesn't narrow your choices, it broadens them."
Afterwards, there was a considerable uptick in LGBTQIA people converting. There was a noticeable amount of gay men becoming bears, something rather obvious. There was enough of them to form a small community, but it wasn't strictly 'no girls allowed'. Bear sows were allowed to come by in case any of the boars might have an interest.
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Another important conversion during Pride Month was an experiment for Project Hermaphroditus. Using an asexual couple of opposite genders, an MRI machine was used to give an extensive look at the internal changes that went on during a hermaphrodite conversion. After becoming herm horses, the couple became extremely...interested with each other. The doctors chalked that up to a lifetime of little-to-none sexual expression being unbottled all at once in an extremely receptive format.
Both of them have also lived bland, aromantic lives before their conversion, which may also explained the colorful modifications Bix and Inex done to themselves, along with the name changes. Bix dyed hir mane pink and hir tail blue like the bisexual flag while Inex dyed hir mane purple and hir tail yellow like the intersex flag. Additionally, they got matching flank tattoos, Bix's were a horizontal blue and white stripe while Inex's were a white and pink stripe so that when they were pressed together, they formed the transgender flag.
They also sparked some discussion whether Hermaphrodite should be recognized as its own category in the LGBT community. There was some doubt there as hermaphrodites outside of Animalia are extremely rare. There was also some uncertainty as what colors would be on the hermaphrodite flag.
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While Animalia has offered help to people with gender dysphoria, not all of them were satisfied that the only option give was becoming a herm. While it might be better than nothing, some people want a complete gender reversal, not just having both sexes. It seemed unfeasible using the Animalia virus, but there has been a breakthrough. While obviously there are no animal species consisting of only males, there are species that consisted of only females. Most of them are invertebrates like aphids, but one species of vertebrate is all-female.
The New Mexico whiptail is a seemingly natural crossbreed of the little striped whiptail and the western whiptail. And unlike many animal hybrids, it is capable of breeding, but only through parthenogenesis and can only produce females. There has been discussion about uplifting the whiptail as early as the very beginning of Animalia. However, the change in government not long afterwards to one that was considerably less tolerant put a halt on that discussion. But under the current government, things have improved more than well enough to proceed with the experiment. The uplifted whiptail was the first purely lesbian Animalian. Her milk was then used on a trans woman, who became a completely female whiptail Animalian.
While the whiptail strain seemed to work as expected, potential convertors had to be aware of a few things. As an all-female strain, anyone who converted would become a woman only interested in other women. There is no male equivalent and there most likely never will be. It is unclear if sex between whiptails could produce eggs that contain genes from both parents or if the eggs would only be clones of their mother. In any case, whiptail conversions will be more tightly controlled as they cause a more extreme change and have the potential to cause a considerable outbreak.