I commend their PC

Penguins lose 'fairy' tag
By Hannah Davies
16apr06

"THEME park bosses have re-named their colony of fairy penguins amid fears they could upset the gay community.

Managers at Sea World, on the Gold Coast, are now calling the species "little penguins" in case associations with the word "fairy" offend visitors to the park.

"We didn't have any complaints about the name of the penguins, but someone thought they could be seen as offensive so we decided to change it to little penguin instead," a Sea World spokeswoman said. "We just didn't want to upset the gay community. The new name is more politically correct."

However, Queensland's gay community and other zoos which keep fairy penguins described the name change as ridiculous and unnecessary.

Kamahl Fox, chairman of gay support group the Gold Coast Breakers, said: "I wouldn't be upset by fairy penguins at all.

"I don't think our community is that sensitive about those things. If the penguins were called poofter penguins or something more direct then it might be a problem, but I don't see the name fairy penguin as a mickey-take at all."

A spokesman for Brisbane's Gay Dads group said the name change took political correctness to the extreme.

"People have been going to see fairy penguins for years and that shouldn't have to change," he said. "The word fairy hasn't been offensive to gay people for about 30 years -- it's just not an issue."

Nerida Ackerman, spokeswoman for gay, lesbian and bisexual 12 to 18-year-olds at Brisbane's Open Door Youth Service, said: "The young people here have grown up knowing these birds as fairy penguins and they think it's silly and a bit of a shame that the name has been changed."

Other zoos said they had no plans to rename their penguins.

"I've never heard of anyone changing the name of a species because of gay reasons before," a spokeswoman for Sydney's Taronga Zoo said. "I don't understand why anyone would change the name fairy penguins because of that association."

Adelaide Zoo's penguin keeper Lauren Ellis said: "We've always called them fairy penguins and are not about to change that."

But Phillip Island Nature Park in Victoria also used to call the birds fairy penguins but now refers to them as little penguins. A spokesman said the name was changed as little penguin is thought to be "a more accurate translation of their scientific name, eudyptula minor."

Fairy penguins are only found in the southern hemisphere preferring the warmer waters along the shores of southern Australia and New Zealand."

Can we blame them? People in this country have become so uber sensitive to a simple word that even changing the name of a species of animal has become necessary. And if those at Sea World hadn't had the foresight to change this name, who knows who would have been offended? Even though the gay community wasn't offended by the name 'Fairy Penguin' who's to say that there aren't those out there that would eventually make this an issue.

Kudos to Sea World for their quick thinking....LOL