Are pheasants actually #queer ? Well that’s what an #LGBTQ history guide at a museum in England has said. The Queer History Trail Map was published by Hastings Queer History Collective and designed by a local graphic design company “They Them Studio”. It offers a walkthrough guide to the seaside town’s LGBTQ+ history and museum collections. But, there’s one artefact in particular that’s causing a stir - a pair of taxidermied pheasants held in the council-owned Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. The pamphlet says that “despite queer behaviour in the animal kingdom being observed as far back as the 18th century, it is often ignored or hidden from the public. One example is of female pheasants changing their sex when they stop laying eggs and turn their brown feathers into the brightly coloured feathering typical of males.” It adds that “pheasants feature in some of the earliest European studies of queer behaviour in animals”, citing a late 18th century paper titled “An Account Of An...