“It’s Unnatural”

The artwork “It’s Unnatural” serves as a visual counterargument to those who say that being part of the LGBTQ+ community is unnatural. Not only is it pointless to compare animals to humans when it comes to how they spend their lives, but even if it was, this argument is completely false. Animals display queer traits in nature all the time, and the animals displayed within the piece are examples of it. For example, all clownfish are born as males, but overtime they can change their sexes to become female. The majority of male orcas exhibit bisexual tendencies. All whiptail lizards are female and reproduce asexually, but still exhibit courting behaviors with other females. Some animals can be born as gynandromorphs, which means that they have the sex traits of both males and females. In sexually dimorphic species, this can give them split coloration, and can be seen in birds, butterflies, and even lobsters. Two chinstrap penguins named Roy and Silo were a same sex male couple in the Central Park Zoo, and they even raised a chick named Tango together. There are numerous other examples besides the ones here, but they still provide ample evidence against the idea that being queer is unnatural. In addition, I wanted to emphasize how being part of the LGBTQ+ community is not only normal, but something to be celebrated, so I illustrated the animals having their own pride parade in a fun and whimsical style.