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The holiday season rarely showcases Queer and Trans imagery, so Options looked to see if artificial intelligence could help rectify that. These are the images AI came up with.
Images of Queer and Trans love and community are not always readily available in pop culture. Rarer still are images of our communities enjoying the holiday season. With the recent advances in AI technology, the generation of images made by computers has become cheap, fast, and often, can produce very usable images. This isn’t without controversy, on December 21, the Los Angles Times ran an opinion piece by artist Molly Crabapple that warned AI would soon replace artists. It is unclear if that is the case. Yet, it does seem to mean there is a new way for people to create images that represent themselves and their communities in ways pop culture, media, and society at large might not always give one access to.
Options decided to see what these generators could do. Options created these images from two AI generator apps, Wonder and DaVinci. Each app charges around $30 to use for a single year. Art was generated by imputing phrases such as “Gay Christmas,” “Lesbian couple decorating a Christmas tree,” Trans Christmas,” and then using different style choices to generate images.
Options did encounter issues with both apps. While both apps would generate white and Asian appearing characters without any prompting, neither app would generate images of Black appearing characters unless specifically prompted to do so. Options also found Wonder would use the term gay without issue, but would not allow us to produce images when we used the term lesbian in the prompt. Options did not encounter word censoring from DaVinci. Both apps had a difficult time interpreting Trans inclusive holiday imagery. Options also tried to see if the apps would do anything special for Rhode Island Queer holiday images, but the apps didn’t seem to know what to do with the Ocean State.
Overall, options did end up with a group of images that appeared useable enough to share with out readers. Are they any good? You be the judge.
The AI generators sometimes took "Gay Christmas" to be landscape, with little focus on people but instead giant spaces, sometimes in traditional city spaces to cyberpunk futures. Is this the holiday looks of tomorrow?
While some AI-generated images were landscape-focused, the pop art style option in DaVinci generated modern Queer couples.
Both AI generators created images of same-sex couples and families in traditional styles as well. Both generators easily created art in various anime styles, though sometimes felt a couple meant including a third person:
Other images generated appeared as a modern take on the art deco styles of the 1920s. The images have more detailed human-appearing faces than many of the other styles and include holiday imagery, creating an eerily well-done group of images:
Some images were well-drawn but weird. What would Gays in space do for Christmas? Well, we have a rough idea now. Apparently, AI thinks we will decorate our spacesuits with Christmas lights:
Other images didn't fit the other categories, but we thought might be enjoyable.
Is AI art the future of Queer and Trans holiday imagery? Was what it produced for Options any good? We will let the reader decide these questions and wish you a wonderful holiday season!
Readers are welcome to use or share these images, we just ask the photo credit go to Options Magazine and that the art was AI-generated.