Female Penguin Renamed After Park Staff Discover She’s In Fact a Gay Male

Staff at a wildlife park who were bemused by female king penguin Maggie’s inability to lay eggs – despite flirting and lovemaking with males in her enclosure – have learned the truth behind the mystery.

The 10-year-old bird, it turns out, is male. And gay.

Since renamed Magnus, the penguin lives at Birdland Park and Gardens, in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, which has the UK’s only king penguin breeding colony.

The colony is made up of four other birds: 30-year-old Bill, 24-year-old Frank, Seth, the world’s oldest living king penguin at 39, and Spike, 17. Bill was originally thought to be male but was later discovered to be female. Magnus was brought to Birdland from Odense in Denmark in 2016 as part of a breeding programme to boost numbers.

“Magnus seemed to settle in well, even catching the attention of fellow penguin Frank,” a spokesman told The Telegraph. “But when keepers observed ‘Maggie’ attempting to mate with Frank, suspicions grew. A feather sample was sent for DNA testing and the truth was revealed: Magnus is definitely male.”

Alistair Keen, Birdland’s head-keeper, said the discovery of Magnus’ real sex presents “another unique hurdle” in efforts to establish a successful breeding programme because it leaves just one female bird in the colony.

“It’s fascinating, however, to have confirmed what we’ve long suspected, and we remain committed to supporting these incredible birds in every way possible,” he added.

A new female penguin is expected to arrive from Germany in January 2025.

Given that Magnus is a male, it turns out he has been engaging in same-sex sexual activity.

The children’s book And Tango Makes Three was inspired by the real-life coupling of male penguins Roy and Silo at New York’s Central Park Zoo. The title is frequently included in book bans by anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives who want to prevent children knowing about homosexuality.

Sphen and Magic, a pair of male gentoo penguins at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, also made headlines around the world and were dubbed gay icons for their love story. They adopted and raised two chicks: Sphengic (Lara) was born in 2018, followed by Clancy two years later.

Fans of the birds were left heart-broken in August when Sphen died aged 11.

In the wild, when a penguin’s partner dies the living one will often search for them, so staff at the Sydney aquarium decided it would be best to show Magic that Sphen died, to help him see that “his partner wouldn’t be returning”.

Penguin-keeper Renee Howell described the moment Magic saw Sphen as deeply emotional because he started singing, with the wider colony then joining in.

In 2019, Heythrop Zoo, in Oxfordshire, threw a lavish wedding for “inseparable” penguin couple Ferrari and Pringle, including a ride in a Bentley and a fish wedding breakfast.

Emilia Pérez

“Emilia Pérez” has won best film at the European Film Awards. The musical also claimed prizes for best director, screenplay, editing and best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón.

Karla Sofía Gascón is the first openly trans actor to win best actress at Cannes for her role in Jacques Audiard’s audacious musical, Emilia Pérez.

The 52-year-old Gascón, who was born and raised near Madrid and has spent the bulk of her career acting in Mexican telenovelas, plays the drugs kingpin Manitas, who fakes his death, transitions from male to female and reinvents herself as Pérez, a socially conscious activist.

Accepting her prize, Gascón was very emotional and dedicated the prize to trans people in Europe. She said she had chosen to wear a blue dress because she believed “deeply” in European values. “There are European roots of many human rights and laws”, she said. “We have been pioneers in the world in passing laws that make life better for many people.”

Gascón herself transitioned at the age of 46. Back then, she told herself: “I do it now, or I never do it.” She continues to have the support of her wife, whom she has known since they were teenagers, and their daughter, who is now 13.

Veteran Welsh LGBTQ+ Activist Celebrated as a Game Changer

When Lisa Power MBE came out in the 1970s, there were few icons to draw courage and inspiration from. “I had a choice between Radclyffe Hall – whose The Well of Loneliness is the most miserable novel in the English language – and Beryl Reid in the film The Killing of Sister George, drunk as a skunk sexually assaulting nuns in a taxi,” Lisa recalls. 

It’s all the more fitting, then, that after a lifetime of fighting for gay rights, Lisa, 69, has become something of an icon herself. She volunteered on a telephone helpline in the 1980s, offering advice during the Aids epidemic (a time she revisited as a historical consultant to Channel 4’s It’s a Sin); was policy director at the Terrence Higgins Trust; and co-founded Stonewall.

In 1991 she was the first openly queer person to address the UN on gay rights. And she has even been “sainted” by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence group, which campaigns on LGBTQ+ issues.

Now Lisa, a proud Cardiff native, volunteers for Pride Cymru. “Friends joke that I won’t retire but I’m doing what I love,” Lisa says. “I’m a sort of generic ‘gay granny’ and that’s a privilege, as so many male friends from our community didn’t survive into old age.”

Lisa has just been nominated by the public as one of 30 National Lottery Game Changers to help celebrate the organisation’s 30th birthday – the first draw was on November 19, 1994. Players have since raised £50 billion (£30 million a week) for causes that change lives, supporting more than 690,000 projects. The Game Changers are being honoured for their inspiring achievements across community, heritage, sport, arts and film projects, and organisations that have used National Lottery funding.

‘Being a generic “gay granny” is a privilege – so many male friends didn’t survive’

“It’s very exciting to have been nominated as a Game Changer by others because usually I muscle my own way into things,” Lisa laughs. “It’s lovely to be remembered for the game changing I’ve done and acknowledged as someone who is still changing the game.”

Lisa is one of seven Game Changers honoured for their work in heritage. Since 1994, billions of pounds of National Lottery funding have gone into the sector, making it the UK’s largest supporter of heritage projects and organisations. 

In 2015, Lisa and Pride Cymru received a National Lottery grant to create Icons & Allies, a mobile portrait exhibition shining a light on 20 Welsh LGBTQIA+ trailblazers who helped shape their country. They were nominated by the public and endorsed by experts in queer history. 

“I remember my experience in the 1970s – no icons and precious few allies,” Lisa says. “But as a community we have a rich history and need to be able to say: ‘Look, here are our gay elders.’ It’s about that slogan: ‘If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.’ It also irritated me that there were so many gay people, like Terry Higgins and Ivor Novello – both Icons in the exhibition – who nobody realised were Welsh.” 

The Icon from furthest back in history is Hugh Despenser, a peer hung, drawn and quartered in 1326 for being King Edward II’s lover. Allies include miner Dai Donovan, who hosted and looked after members of fundraising group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners when they visited south Wales mining communities during the 1984 strike, sometimes in the face of vitriolic homophobia. 

Icons & Allies, first shown at the Welsh Parliament in 2016, is still touring libraries, educational institutions and even shopping centres. “It’s not what people expect in Sainsbury’s on a Saturday – ‘a couple of pounds of potatoes and a lesson in gay history, please’. But it’s where people need to see it. 

“When we stuck our head above the parapet in the Eighties, the backlash was massive and that’s what’s happening to trans people now. They’re the most persecuted section of our community. 

“So one of our exhibition Icons is Wena Parry, an evangelical preacher from Port Talbot who in 2005 was the first trans person to take the UK to the European Court of Human Rights. Then, to get a gender recognition certificate, you had to divorce your heterosexual partner. But she saw no reason why she should split up with her lovely wife. She lost but her case became a lever for subsequent ones. Without that National Lottery funding we couldn’t share Wena’s story.”

Last month, Lisa was in Whitby for the unveiling of a 5,400 sq m land art installation celebrating the seven National Lottery Heritage Game Changers, who include Eden Project co-founder Sir Tim Smit and Arthur Torrington, who helped set up the Windrush Foundation. 

“A huge painting of a tree spread out from Whitby Abbey with a representation of each of our hands at its roots. It was magnificent. And I was very proud to represent my community and Wales.” 

Next year is the 40th anniversary of Cardiff’s first Gay Pride march, and Lisa and Pride Cymru hope to mark it with a celebration of activism in Wales. “I’m a loud voice and get involved to stand up for people,” she says. “Hopefully seeing The National Lottery Game Changers – people who did something because it needed doing – will inspire game changers of the future.”