My biggest regret after drawing this cartoon is that I didn't include enough diversity in it.
I had already scrapped an initial sketch because I had started making the characters too large in the space — I probably wouldn't have been able to fit more than half a dozen people into the cartoon. Drawing characters too small, on the other hand, would have presented the problem of how to fill the space vertically (either by depicting the crowd from above, or positioned on, say, parade floats), as well as perhaps doubling how long it would take to grayscalify and colorize the versions sent to Q Syndicate. (In order to attend a family funeral Monday morning, I was up until 2:00 a.m. adding gray tones to the grayscale version, and back at it at 5:30 a.m. adding color to the CMYK/RGB versions.)
So if you are disappointed that my cartoon doesn't include any same-sex parents, twinks, bears, drag kings, Republicans, or left-handed Polynesian furries, well, so am I.
On the other hand, how do you know that none of the people in this cartoon is a Republican?
Our community is under attack, and not just in red states, but nationwide, from a hostile federal government. They are concentrating their fire right now on transgender persons, but make no mistake: they are coming for all of us.
Equity and inclusivity are more vital these days than ever. Now is no time to abandon any segment of our LGBTQ+ alphabet soup. We must hang together, as the saying goes, or hang separately. Only by cherishing, celebrating, and defending our diversity will we save ourselves.
After all, without DEI, PRIDE is just PR.
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