Despite the many challenges associated with earning science-based degrees, one of the best aspects is that these programs are generally devoid of political correctness.

However, a biology researcher at a prestigious institution has managed to combine a new discovery with gay rights.

A Duke University professor has named a new fern genus she describes as bisexual after popstar Lady Gaga, and further says the different methods plants reproduce celebrates homosexuality in humans.

Professor Kathleen Pryer led the research team that discovered the new genus, dubbed the Gaga group, in honor of the famously androgynous singer’s celebration of diversity, defense of equality, and support of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered community, she said in an exclusive interview with The College Fix.

But underscoring that, Pryer said she hopes to highlight the many different ways plants can reproduce, and ultimately bolster the argument that sexual diversity has many formats, whether that be in plants, animals or humans.

“I am trying to revise the textbook depiction of the fern life cycle because it’s incorrect, it only portrays it happening in one way,” she said. “There are several different ways. There is asexuality. Gametophytes can be bisexual. They can fertilize themselves. They can outcross. There is such a diversity in ways that ferns and plants … reproduce.”

Pryer ties that concept with larger notions of reproduction.

“If you talk about evolutionary success being reproduction, leading to the next generation, then (plants) have figured out all kinds of ways to do that to keep the species going, there isn’t just one way,” she said. “So I want to lend a broader perspective. We tend to think of ourselves and then maybe the larger animal community, but if one looks at all of biology, you would see … diversity in how organisms go about reproducing and ensuring the next generation.”

Pryer cites Stanford University’s Joan Roughgarden, author of “Evolution’s Rainbow,” as an inspiration.

“Joan was born Jonathan Roughgarden, and she became female, she changed her gender,” Pryer said. “I began to think about her and her talks and how extraordinarily brave somebody had to be to do all the things she did.”

Pryer said one example Roughgarden often mentions is her participation in a huge gay pride parade, and “if being (LGBT) was maladaptive, then why were there so many people like this?”

Pryer said “Evolution’s Rainbow” details some 400 animals that show “odd behavior, homosexuality, or anything that would be called a human quirk.” Now Pryer said she is taking that concept further, linking the diversity in plant reproduction with the homosexual lifestyle, and perhaps even validating it through such a connection.

“We don’t associate ourselves with being closely related to plants, they are distant on the tree of life from animals, and yet … we have to understand – it’s bigger than all of that,” Pryer said.