Gays in the wild wild west.

            1801     Though carried out under Spanish law, the last known U.S. death sentence for sodomy occurs in California. Eighteen-year-old Jose Antonio Rosas is shot by a firing squad.

            1850     California’s first criminal code is enacted, and includes a ban on sodomy. The law begins with the preface, “The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:”. However, the law was enacted in April when California still was a territory. It did not become a state until September, and it is unclear if this made the original law invalid.

            1951     A California appellate court rules that Gay men are vagrant per se, permitting them to be jailed without committing any criminal act.

But there has been strong interest in an aspect of animal behaviour the museum says is quite common. It says homosexuality has been observed among 1,500 species, and that in 500 of those it is well documented. The exhibition - entitled Against Nature? - includes photographs of one male giraffe mounting another, of apes stimulating others of the same sex, and two aroused male right whales rubbing against each other.

We hope to reject the all too well known argument that homosexual behaviour is a crime against nature Oslo Natural History Museum

"Homosexuality is a common and widespread phenomenon in the animal world," says an exhibition statement. "Not only short-lived sexual relationships, but even long-lasting partnerships; partnerships that may last a lifetime."

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While homosexuality would appear to contradict evolutionary imperatives, scientists involved in the exhibition say it appears to do no harm and may actually help in some circumstances. Sometimes a pair of male birds may rear eggs donated by a female.

In the case of flamingos, for instance, "two males can hold a much larger territory than a regular flamingo pair, thus more chicks can grow up", the exhibition states.

In some colonies, as many as one in 10 pairs of penguins may be same-sex, while "in some animals the whole species is bisexual", the exhibition says, giving bonobo chimpanzees as an example.