S&F: Were you thinking of writing this story before you heard about the Sloan prize, or was that an incentive?ĭH: I’ve always thought about doing something about “gay animals” and the frequently absurd political frenzy that can surround the research, like that controversy around the “gay penguins” in the Central Park Zoo from a couple of years ago. He said that as long as the science is accurate it is okay. I told him that this was for a screenwriting competition and I didn’t know what would come of it, but asked if he was willing. I feel very lucky for his willingness to let me take some of the things that happened to him and some of his research and run with it.ĭH: I just reached out. He said that I could use the story as long as the science is accurate. I fictionalized a lot of things in my screenplay. S&F: To write the script, have you just been drawing from what is in the public record?ĭH: I actually talked with the scientist, Charles Roselli, who the story is based on. S&F: So you were also anthropomorphizing it. But as a young person reading that article I thought, there is something natural about queer sexuality. That was interesting thinking about how quickly humans want to conflate animal behavior with our own behavior. I thought about how tricky it is for researchers who study animal behavior and sexuality to talk about their research without it being anthropomorphized. I am queer myself and a long time ago I read an article in The New York Times about a biologist who studies “lesbian” albatross. All the politics around this wrap his research into questions about human sexuality, which is ultimately not what he’s researching and isn’t applicable. It’s complicated for sheep, but it’s even more complicated for humans. This underlines how sexuality is very complicated. I was interested in the ways he would have to navigate the treacherous terrain of studying sexuality, and ultimately his results are inconclusive. S&F: Are you coming at this from a certain angle? Do you think your story has a message?ĭH: To me it is a story all about how fraught and difficult it can be to communicate scientific ideas to the public, especially scientific research around sexuality. Because at the time–the year that the Federal Marriage Amendment banning gay marriage was making its way through Congress with President Bush’s support–the argument that conservatives made was that gay sexuality was unnatural. In the script, my character Peter Woolinsky, who sees himself as impartial and objective, thinks that his research could have a progressive impact. He has to communicate what the research means to him and why it doesn’t have the political implications she thinks it does. His teenage daughter joins the protest because she is in the process of coming out as gay, and he doesn’t realize it until it’s too late. The Christian right, PETA, celebrities, LGBTQ activists, and even the scientist’s own daughter are protesting the research.
The story is about how this particular piece of research ignites a huge media firestorm. It is the story of a scientist who studies hormones in sheep brains, specifically around sexual selection more colloquially and scientifically inaccurate in all kinds of ways, he studies “gay sheep.” These are rams that exclusively mount other rams.
Science & Film: What can you tell me about SHEEPISH?ĭaniel Hirsch: The script is inspired by true events but it is fictionalized. Science & Film spoke with Hirsch on the phone after the award announcement. In 2017, the script was awarded $15,000 from the Sloan Foundation’s partnership with Carnegie Mellon. Roselli worked with Hirsch on the scientific accuracy of the script. Understanding the biochemistry of sexual selection is crucial to understanding evolution. Carnegie Mellon graduate Daniel Hirsch was inspired by this story to write the feature film script SHEEPISH, which centers on both the public and private implications for an endocrinologist of his study on male-oriented behavior of rams. Charles Roselli’s study of the mating selection of rams came became the center of a controversial public debate. Gay Sheep: Researcher Collaborates with Writer of Sheepish