Why should sexual orientation, gender, sex etc. be of particular relevance in a zoo? As far as I know, homophobia / transphobia etc. is only relevant among human societies, not animals. As for the topic of animal sexuality, the zoo in question might establish a special exhibition on that, but I doubt that the majority of visitors would highly appreciate it. Especially not in conservative countries. As for ethnicity: this might mainly be an economic aspect to widen your visitor demographic. I remember a German zoo poll a couple of years ago asking Turkish and Arabian zoo visitors what they would like to have changed in a zoo to feel more welcome (large public BBQ places and special group ticket accounts for huge families were the most common answers). However, just as MRJ suggested, I guess cartering to one specific ethnic group might alienate all the others.
I wasn’t meaning in relevance to zoos themselves, just in relevance to the actual demographics of zoochat membership, because there is something to note about how it affects every aspect of your life, and for me at least that manifested in an early childhood of understanding and ‘getting’ animals better than other people, so I wanted to spend more time at the zoo and that just spiralled from there. I would just be curious if anyone had the same experience. You’re right that it shouldn’t come up in an actual professional environment at all (unless if there was an issue of workplace discrimination of course, no more likely to happen in a zoo than in an office or retailer). Especially not ‘animal sexuality’ I didn’t reference that at all, which is an interesting subject but not exactly appropriate for zoos which are largely (and I’m sure we’d all agree, wrongly) seen as specifically ‘for kids’. (And I think specifically highlighting the sex lives of animals might attract the uh...wrong customers)
I think there was a gender and ages of zoochatters thread somewhere (possibly in the zoo cafe?) EDIT- found the thread Gender and Age of Zoochatters
