Rox is Bad at Knots…
I feel like I’ve wronged the world with this strip.
Having my main male character dealing with being assumed gay is… Well, I think it’s played out, and maybe a bit homophobic and I even questioned posting it.
It’s a thing I’ve dealt with. When I was a kid, my Dad threatened to beat me up if I kept being flamboyant with my hand gestures. My grandfather inferred I was gay long before I could even understand that’s what he was doing. It took a long time, (and a really patient gay best friend) to get over the negative association.
But I know this is nothing. I have friends, acquaintances, artists and game designers I look up to, who get constant crap for being who they are, and I know that whatever I experienced, I have nothing on them.
And so this. I know that telling the story of a straight man who is assumed to be gay is old hat. It’s something we’ve dealt with as a society. I can wear pink (I don’t, but I’m working up to it) I can have gay friends, I can ride a vespa. (The last people on the planet who actually needed more freedoms was the straight white guys, but we got them) But it’s part of my story, and it became part of this story. I apologize if it’s trite and meaningless. I didn’t mean to trivialize LGTB issues, let me know if I have and I will try to make things right.
And to those of you in my audience who are offended that I even recognized that homosexuality is a thing, (And I know there’s one or two of you) it’s 2014. I make no apologies.
Robin, did you just really need their hands for this scene, or is it essential for their escape?
I drew the whole page before I remembered that their hands had been tied up in the previous one. I even had it uploaded.
So yeah, last minute panel adjustment…
As someone who has also been assumed to be gay I can relate to this comic.
Not offended, just for the record. We both acknowledge homosexuality as a thing. And I’m really sorry about your dad and grandpa.