--- title: Newly Discovered Snail Species Named in Honor of Marriage Equality description: Finally, some good news for animals of Denmark canonical: https://time.com/3503580/snail-species-marriage-equality/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-14T00:34:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:45:45.757Z article:section: Science og:title: Newly Discovered Snail Species Named in Honor of Marriage Equality og:description: Finally, some good news for animals of Denmark og:url: https://time.com/3503580/snail-species-marriage-equality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Newly Discovered Snail Species Named in Honor of Marriage Equality twitter:description: Finally, some good news for animals of Denmark twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Newly Discovered Snail Species Named in Honor of Marriage Equality  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Oct 14, 2014 12:34 AM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Oct 14, 2014 12:34 AM UTC A newly discovered species of snail [has been named in honor of marriage equality](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29599785). The snail, _Aegista diversifamilia,_ which has both male and female sex organs, “represents the diversity of sex orientation in the animal kingdom,” the BBC reports. The snail is common in eastern Taiwan, where same-sex marriage is illegal, according to research published in the journal _ZooKeys._ “When we were preparing the manuscript, it was a period when Taiwan and many other countries and states were struggling for the recognition of same-sex marriage rights,” said Dr. Yen-Chang Lee, the first person to suggest the snail might be its own species and not another, similar species of snail previously mistaken for it.”We decided that maybe this is a good occasion to name the snail to remember the struggle for the recognition of same-sex marriage rights.” Lee, from Taipei’s Academia Sinica, first noticed that snails of the _Aegista subchinensis_ species were very different in the eastern part of the country in 2003 before taking part in a detailed study of the “new” snail with researchers from National Taiwan Normal University. \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29599785)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3503580/snail-species-marriage-equality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3503580/snail-species-marriage-equality/"},"headline":"Newly Discovered Snail Species Named in Honor of Marriage Equality","datePublished":"2014-10-14T00:34:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:45:45.757Z","description":"The Aegista diversifamilia has both male and female sex organs","url":"https://time.com/3503580/snail-species-marriage-equality/","keywords":["animals","Marriage Equality"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3503580/snail-species-marriage-equality/","name":"Newly Discovered Snail Species Named in Honor of Marriage Equality"}}]}] ```