In 1972, married biologists George Hunt and Molly Warner made a discovery that would rock both the scientific and LGBTQ communities. While observing seagulls nesting on the Channel Islands, they found that 14% of all nesting pairs were both females.
This research, on what were deemed the “lesbian seagulls,” quickly pushed Hunt and Warner into a whirlwind of hope and controversy as their findings coincided with the rise of the LGBTQ rights movement – and accompanying opposition by those in favor of “traditional values.”
“It was considered unnatural, and it had been considered unnatural by the dominant narrative and the mainstream discourse by the moral majorities of the world,” said Elliott Kennerson, a San Diego-based natural history filmmaker. “Since the Middle Ages, people have been writing about homosexuality, and since that time saying, ‘Look at nature. Do you see (homosexuality) in nature? No, you don’t. It’s unnatural; it’s a sin.’ So, there they are seeing it in nature.”
From left, “Love Birds” director of photography David Hutchinson and directors Elliott Kennerson andAngel Morris on location off Santa Barbara Island. (Photo courtesy of Perfect Four Productions)Kennerson is the co-director of “Love Birds,” a documentary short that traces the impact of this groundbreaking discovery on society’s understanding of heteronormative biases in the sciences, as well as the strain that this new publicity had on Hunt and Warner’s marriage. The documentary, co-directed by Angel Morris, formerly of San Diego, was funded by a grant provided by NBC and was filmed in 2023.
Hunt and Warner documented one of the first observations of homosexuality in wildlife; female seagulls acted as bonded pairs – sharing nests and eggs, copulating and “behaving just like male-female mated pairs,” according to Kennerson.
“When you say something is a part of nature or not a part of nature, that’s kind of a meaningless distinction because everything is, in a sense, nature. And so, what is, is,” Kennerson said. “Like myself, and almost every other LGBTQ person I’ve ever met, they know they didn’t choose to be this way.”
While the lesbian seagulls were discovered in 1972, Kennerson said that it took five years for the research to be published due to the controversial subject matter. He explained that 1977 was also a pivotal moment for the LGBTQ rights movement, which was facing major opposition, especially in regard to equitable housing.
During this time, an anti-LGBTQ campaign led by beauty queen, singer and president of Save Our Children, Anita Bryant had successfully repealed an ordinance in Dade County, Florida that protected same-sex couples from housing discrimination. Bryant also served as the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission, which openly supported her despite her campaign. This sparked mass protest across the nation, including a three-year-long boycott of Florida orange juice.
In 1980, Bryant was fired by the Florida Citrus Commission; but, it wasn’t until 1998 that Dade County passed a new ordinance reinstating equitable housing and employment rights for LGBTQ community members, according to the Global Nonviolent Action Database.
“(Hunt and Warner’s research) was just part of this firestorm of ideas around gay rights and gay existence and the nature of being gay, and how that was colliding with more traditional values in the country,” Kennerson said.
“Love Birds” is eligible for Oscar consideration and has garnered national acclaim, qualifying for over 30 film festivals in 2025 and winning various awards – including, the Editing award at Jackson Wild and the Prix de Jury at the Féstival International du Film Ornithologique in Ménigoute, France.
Kennerson was raised in Del Mar and moved back to San Diego five years ago. He is a three-time Regional Emmy winner for his work on “Deep Look,” a science video series produced by KQED and PBS Digital Studios. Other nature documentary series he’s worked on include PBS’s “Nature,” “Human Footprint” and KPBS San Diego’s “Animal R&R.”
Kennerson, 51, said that it wasn’t until 20 years ago that he considered being a documentarian, when he attended Montana State University to obtain his master’s degree in natural history filmmaking, which was the first program of its kind in the United States.
Before attending MSU, Kennerson received his bachelor’s degree in archeology from Yale and explored various career paths – from trying to break into the arts as a singer and actor, an industry he described as “opaque and difficult,” to working as a reporter for the New York Times.
The documentary “Love Birds” covers the 1972 discovery that some nesting pairs of seagulls are female-female. (Photo courtesy of Elliott Kennerson)“When I heard about this program, I was approaching 30, and my career wasn’t really coming into focus in those areas,” he said, adding that his journalism background inspired him to pursue documentary filmmaking, as opposed to traditional film school.
After graduating, he moved to San Francisco where he began working on “Deep Look,” which was created by his friend and MSU peer Josh Cassidy. Kennerson said that he started as a writer and producer for some of the episodes, as well as a post-production supervisor for the series.
He added that this position provided him with plenty of freedom to choose topics for the episodes, which gave him an outlet to explore his niche in nature documentaries – especially his interest in breaking down the biases and values that humans impose on the natural world.
“Specifically, I’m interested in queer stories, because I’m a gay man, and, to my delight, there’s a lot of new science about queerness and nature, and a lot of scientists, especially LGBTQ ones, using their experiences as a new lens on nature storytelling and even scientific practice.”
One episode that Kennerson directed for “Deep Look” examined the sexism that is often presented when discussing black widow spiders’ mating practices. The narrative of female black widows killing their mates is largely overblown, with only two out of 31 species in the U.S. exhibiting this behavior, as detailed in the episode titled “Why the Male Black Widow is a Real Homewrecker.” The episode won him a Regional Emmy.
“We’re animals; we find mates and make progeny and build houses and habitats and all of that, just like every other animal,” Kennerson said. “But, what we also do is instill in our storytelling of nature other values that, in my opinion, are not always so savory, such as sexism.”
“Love Birds” will be screened at the San Diego Natural History Museum at 7 p.m. Wednesday as part of Pride Week. After the screening, Kennerson will share his experiences on the project and explore its impact on the LGBTQ+ community. General admission tickets, at $15, can be purchased at The Nat’s website.
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