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Eleven years ago, Drew Denny set out to create the film she wished she’d seen growing up as a young queer person in Austin.
Attending Austin High from 1999 to 2001, Denny said she experienced bullying and mistreatment from fellow students and unsupportive teachers. She came away from that education, especially biology and sex ed, with the feeling that LGBTQ+ people are strange and unnatural from a scientific or evolutionary perspective.
In 2015, she discovered “Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People” by Joan Roughgarden – a book that radically changed Denny’s view on the nature of the animal kingdom, and human behavior. In this book, Roughgarden – who is an ecologist, evolutionary biologist and trans woman – reveals that nature is far different and more diverse than what many of us, including Denny, learned in high school.
“It wasn’t until I grew up and I read Dr. Joan Roughgarden’s book … and I learned about bisexual, matriarchal bonobos (apes) and genderqueer chimps and gay penguin dads and sex-changing fish that I felt – in my body for the first time – that I belong here on Earth just like everyone else,” Denny told Austin Free Press.
The doc, which is narrated by actor and LGBTQ+-rights activist Elliot Page, explores the work of Roughgarden and a host of other highly-respected evolutionary scientists and biologists who study the sexual and familial behavior of animals. On August 25, Denny will return to Austin to present “Second Nature” for a special screening at the State Theatre, the first time it will be fully available to the public here (it appeared at SXSWEdu in March).
Courtesy of Drew Denny
“I wanted to make the movie that I needed in high school, and it’s really special to bring it home,” Denny said.
“Queer or trans or not, we all feel these walls and oppressive forces to try and form who we’re supposed to be and this information is so liberating,” Page said at the New York City premier of the film. “Which is exactly why those in power don’t want us to know about it, you know? So I hope it makes people feel less alone, affirmed, embodied and liberated – and a part of this amazing world.”
From primates to waterfowl, “Second Nature” takes viewers on an informative and humorous journey through lesser known facts about our animal brethren. Presented with both beautiful nature photography and simple but whimsical animation, viewers learn how male chimpanzees make up after a fight (by kissing and cuddling), how ducks’ unique sexual anatomy helps females control who they breed with, and many other fascinating and thought-provoking behaviors. Beyond just exploring queerness in nature, the film shows how even the most noble, and seemingly human impulses – like conflict resolution and caring for each others’ young – can actually be found in abundance among animals.
“There are human parallels behind each of these animal stories,” Denny told the Austin Free Press. “So, maybe we’re telling a silly story about duck vaginas, but we’re also talking about bodily autonomy and reproductive autonomy, and maybe we’re talking about male chimps kissing and making up to reconcile. But for me, that’s also talking about the absolute lie that war is inevitable and genocide is inevitable.”
Denny believes that having access to a film like hers – or the work of scientists like Roughgarden – could have made her life growing up in Austin much easier. While it might not have changed the minds of her bullies, she explained it would have changed her view of herself.
“I think the difference between believing your bullies when they tell you that you’re bad or inferior or gross, and … knowing that they’re wrong, is really a life or death difference.”
There’s some scientific evidence to back up Denny’s assertion: studies have shown that a more LGBTQ+-inclusive education, including LGBTQ+ sex education, can improve the mental health of LGBTQ+ young people. As a result, Denny partnered with the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ mental health and suicide prevention, to promote the film. Locally, free tickets for the August 25 screening have been provided to nonprofits OutYouth and Trans Education Network of Texas, and the LGBTQ+ gym and event space OutWellness so that more members of the local queer and trans community are able to attend.
Syd Young, owner of OutWellness and a board member of Paramount Theatre (which also operates the neighboring State Theatre), told Austin Free Press that they wanted to bring “Second Nature” to Texas because it eloquently reflects the idea that “queerness is everywhere and that it is not a problem – in fact, it’s beautiful.”
“I think that messaging is something we don’t get, especially here,” Young said.
The State Theatre is screening “Second Nature,” along with a Q&A with director Drew Denny, on Tuesday, August 25 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available here.
Kit O’Connell is a GLAAD Media Award-nominated freelance journalist and the former Digital Editor of Texas Observer magazine.
