Hi folks!

This cartoon is a collaboration with Becky Hawkins. Becky and I also create a webcomic together, called "SuperButch," about a lesbian superhero in the 1940s who protects the bar scene from corrupt cops. If that sounds like your jam, check it out!

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This cartoon's theme is pretty obvious - I've just seen (and I think we've all seen) a lot of people who support anti-trans laws or write anti-trans screeds taking a moment after whatever awful thing they just said to stick in a little disclaimer. "I've got nothing against trans people" or "some of my dearest friends are trans" or whatever. It's a little piece of hypocrisy that's worth calling out.

The politician in the second panel is just a generic politician. The other three characters are caricatures of real people - Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage (subtitle: "The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters"); Matt Walsh, who has been caricatured in Leftycartoons once before; and the queen of putting transphobia into polite-sounding arguments that seem soooo reasonable on the surface, J.K. Rowling.  

(Katy Montgomerie provides a very detailed rebuttal of Rowling's anti-trans essay.)

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I am, by the way, once again deep into co-writing a new Wings of Fire graphic novel. I hope to be finished with this script by a month from now, after which I can be a full-time political cartoonist for a while. But until then, we'll be seeing a bunch of guest artists.

(Although to tell you the truth, I love working with guest artists. It's so neat seeing what someone else brings to one of my scripts - there's always something that I wouldn't have done the same or at all myself, and those surprises make it exciting to me. In this cartoon, for example, making the final panel a talk show was Becky's wonderful idea - I would have probably just shown the four of them chatting online or in a coffee shop.)

For those of you who don't know, Wings of Fire is a best-selling series of prose novels by Tui Sutherland. Me and my friend Rachel Swirsky are writing the scripts for comic book adaptations of Tui's novels; the scripts are then drawn by Mike Holmes. 

The first graphic novel in the series just won the 2021 Young Reader's Choice Award, with over a thousand votes! And also, there's going to be a Netflix animated series, apparently?

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As always, thank you so much for supporting this Patreon, making it possible for us to create these cartoons - and for me to pay amazing collaborators like Becky. I can't believe how lucky I am, to live in a time when earning a living this way is possible. 

Extra thanks to Toby Deutsch, who has been supporting this Patreon from the beginning and who is also, by some odd coincidence, my mom. Mom is thanked on the sidebar of this cartoon, too.

Because you're patrons, you're all seeing this cartoon weeks before I'll post it in public. But if you're supporting at the $5 level or above, feel free to show it to folks without waiting.

I have several more cartoons in progress - both drawn by me, and drawn by guests - so I'll be back soon. In the meantime, I hope we all stay well and stay safe.

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has five panels.

PANEL 1

A white woman with a big smile and brown hair is smiling and holding up a book. The book is entitled "Save The Children" and shows a small crying girl behind bars with a red frowny face over her abdomen. 

The woman appears to be on TV - a two-level scrolling chyron at the bottom of the panel reads "Gay Menace Is Now Trans Menace" and "...enator says woke trans stole her lunch mone..."

WOMAN: My book is about how trans people are indoctrinating our children and enticing lesbian girls to become transgenders! 

WOMAN: Please understand I've got nothing against trans people.

PANEL 2

A middle-aged white male politician, wearing a gray suit, is speaking from behind a podium; we can see that a TV camera is pointed at him. The podium has a seal that says "Real America." He's standing in front of two American flags. He holds up a finger to make a point.

POLITICIAN: My legislation will ban transgenders from sports. And public bathrooms. And medical care for trans kids.

POLITICIAN: It will also let doctors, nurses and pharmacists refuse to treat transgenders!

POLITICIAN: Of course I've got nothing against trans people.

PANEL 3

A white man with a full beard, wearing a open neck shirt under a suit jacket, is sitting in front of a laptop and typing rapidly ("tap tap tap tap tap tap tap"). He's grinning in an unfriendly way. On the table next to his laptop are a number of take-out coffee cups, a crumpled-up soda can, and a mug that says "Liberal Tears."  In the space above his laptop, we can see what he's typing.

MAN: Why say "trans women" when I can say "men wearing dresses" instead?

MAN: But I've got NOTHING against trans people!

PANEL 4

A hand holds a smartphone. On the smartphone screen, we can see a red-headed woman in a gown, wearing a dress with blue earrings and a blue necklace, sitting comfortably on a huge, old-fashioned wooden chair that would look at home in Hogwarts. She leans on one arm and makes an open gesture with her other palm.

REDHEAD: My new novel is about a killer who wears dresses and murders woman! It's a sequel to my novel where a trans woman attempts to murder my hero.

REDHEAD: And my new essay is about how the trans movement is a mortal danger to real women.

REDHEAD: But I've got nothing against trans people.

PANEL 5

The set of a TV chat show called "Just Asking Questions." (We know that's what it's called because "Just Asking Questions" is printed in huge letters on the side of the table the guests are sitting around. Plants on either side of the set are in pots with the painted on words "The JAQ Off.")

The host, a nicely-dressed woman with stylish hair, sits in a chair on the left, smiling. Her guests, seating around the table, are the four characters we met in the first four panels of this comic strip.

HOST: Why do so many trans people say you've got something against them?

"SAVE THE CHILDREN" AUTHOR LADY: (shrugs as if bewildered)

POLITICIAN (arms folded, above-it-all expression): It's a Mystery.

BEARDED DUDE: (ignores everything around him while he grins and types quickly on his smartphone)

REDHEAD: I blame cancel culture.