“The Error Is Systemic To The Genre, It Seems”: Writer Reveals How Noah’s Ark Illustrations Frequently Have Gay Pairs Of Animals

Most of us have heard at least something about that world-engulfing flood myth. A God figure gets so frustrated with folks that he decides to destroy all the people for all their sins and wrongdoings in order to give the planet a second chance, essentially acting as that humanity re-birth kind of thing.

However – the said deity finds a family that he chooses to save and instructs them to build an ark that will also hold examples of all the world's animals, male and female specimens, who will later repopulate that sparkling clean and brand new world.

What's amusing is that this Twitter user spotted a common quirk. The illustrations for Noah's Ark, specifically the ones that are made for children, often include two lions that are, in fact, gay. Whether that's an oblivious mistake or not, it doesn't matter, as the online folks are truly living for it. The thread received over 2K likes and heaps of comments discussing this entertaining occurrence.

More info: Twitter

It's not a secret that religion is a very controversial topic. People that believe in spiritual things and don't shame others for living a different lifestyle have been involved in a public affair with those who like to blame their religion for openly hating others. The ongoing issue where LGBTQ+ folks are treated as a walking sin, and that whole pregnancy termination malarkey, is nothing more than the ignorance of extremely ill-educated individuals.

So, despite all the sensitivity behind this topic, this online user has found a rather pleasing error in a bunch of Noah's Ark illustrations. Without hesitation, Bored Panda contacted the author to get a little bit more information on this hilarious thread. The author of the post is a PhD, writer and a host of a podcast called The Devil's Party, where Anthony and his colleagues "read Christian poetry through a queer scholarly lens."

The very first thing BP decided to ask was how the author came across such an oblivious and recurring mistake, to which Anthony replied: "we were doing our podcast episode on the section of John Milton's Paradise Lost in which he describes Noah's flood (in the poem's very last movements as it looks forward through all of human history). I was researching depictions of the flood in art, and I noticed this habit of depicting the two lions charged with repopulating their entire species as... both male. Poor Noah also struggled with the peacocks (usually both with their beautiful tails) and a tendency towards pairs of lesbian cows..."

Going back to the complexity of religious topics, we asked the OP whether he'd had any interesting encounters with religious folks since the thread went viral. Oliveira replied: "there was a weird passel of messages that seemed to think I was responsible for the depictions? Or that I was 'distorting the scriptures with [my] abomination.' Buddy, I didn't paint the mural in the baby's room, I'm just saying that those lions are both boys."

The podcaster also added a few soft-hearted words: "perhaps the murals and toys are not accidents but acts of providence – perhaps they are merely the Lord working in His usual mysterious ways to remind us that there are more important things in life than ensuring its rote mechanical reproduction. When the ark finally scrunched against sand again, I hope the gay lions disembarked to live very happy lives."

No one truly knows if there's anything above or beyond us, but believing while practicing kindness and peace seems like the only right way to go. It's been decades if not more since some folks started using their faith to discriminate left, right and center and it's a shame that not accepting people for the way the alleged creator created them is a little two-faced, at the very least.

Nevertheless, these days people are a little more close-knit and are fighting all the unjustified discrimination together. Even if it's in the form of pointing out a very oblivious biblical "mistake" on some books and toys. The world will be forever packed with negative individuals, and sometimes all we can do is just laugh and continue living our happy and colorful lives.

Even with all the apathy of some folks, all we have to remember is that love is beautiful and it definitely has no gender. Sometimes it's impossible to educate a person that, in reality, doesn't want to be educated – so why waste your well-being on someone who doesn't care about yours? So, just like Anthony said, may the gay lions live a very happy life.