Midstream

Here's a fun game. These two images are the same illustration. Can you spot the difference?





The first image will grace the cover of tomorrow's issue of Just Out. The latter will go the way of the unicorns.

I originally planned on the one with skulls and whatnot . . . then I had a total freak out.

I much prefer skulls and snakes. Honestly, give me skulls and snakes (of course with hot semi-naked girls) and I’m a happy camper. The thing is, the article is about the decline of the anti-gay movement.

Well, I’m from rural Texas. The town I grew up in had a population of 816. The cows far outnumbered the Baptists and Methodists that lived there. If you looked real hard, you found a few Catholics, which is what they called “diversity”. What I’m trying to say is that small town Texas is not exactly known for breeding tolerance and understanding of different lifestyles. I know a lot of people who view my gayness as immoral and I’ve been kinda close with people who are active in the anti-gay movement. In Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, it’s a hot button issue.

I think intolerance, the will to deny people rights, comes largely out of fear and a lack of experience with the unknown. I spent some time with my grandmother watching John Hagee, a prominent Baptist televangelist who’s pretty involved with the Zionist movement. I was shocked that such a hateful message was being telecast into people homes, and that my grandmother agreed emphatically with his views that homos are wicked sex-maniacs without conscience.

But I dearly love my grandmother. I love her caretaker with the big fat anti-gay bumper sticker. I love that old friend from junior high who I ran into and probed me on my love-life because she heard “these awful rumors”.

The point is, I got gun shy about such a negative image relating to the issue, and I don’t want to mis-represent anyone. The Just Out art director had already approved the skull sketch and he was not having the happy rainbow image, and with reason. So I cranked this illustration out in 24 hours flat without a wink, not a wink of sleep. I spose it serves me right for hesitating, trying to change course mid-stream, so to speak. But my intentions were honorable. Now, if I could just remember what they say about that road to that place paved with some things. Oh well, I’ve got to go get my draw on. This band Hookah Stew wants me to do a poster for them, and there will be skulls.