Too Jejune for Junes

Last Saturday, I asked what was so rare as a J.N. "Ding" Darling cartoon in June. The answer, for now, would be mine. 40 years ago, my June cartoons were rare indeed, whereas "Ding" drew nearly three dozen of them 100 Junes ago.

"South Atlantic," June, 1982

Starting out as a cartoonist for college newspapers, I didn't have anyone to publish anything I drew in June at first. But if I had an idea I really liked, I'd draw it anyway. Clearly, I had expended a considerable amount of thought coming up with this parody of "South Pacific" about the Falkland War between Great Britain and Argentina in May and June of 1982.

"Contingencywise," June, 1982

Drawing cartoons like this one about the resignation of Reagan's first Secretary of State, Al Haig, was useful in terms of keeping in practice and honing the craft. And in this particular case, beefing up the portfolio of work I would send out to newspapers who might be looking to hire a cartoonist.

"Isn't It a Shame..." in Quayle Quarterly, Winter, 1992?

Skipping ahead one decade, here's a cartoon I drew in June of 1992 that wasn't published for months later. It happens to be the only cartoon I drew in June of 1992 in spite of freelancing for the Racine Journal Times. Perhaps there were no local issues of interest that month.

Instead, I offered this to a national magazine, The Quayle Quarterly, devoted to the wet-behind-the-ears Vice President of the United States, J. Danforth Quayle. Quayle had spoken out strongly against Candice Bergen's TV sitcom "Murphy Brown" for a plot arc about the title newscaster choosing to become a single mother.

Given the Republican Party's committed opposition to abortion, those of you too young to remember 1992 might have expected Mr. Quayle to have applauded Ms. Brown's decision to carry a pregnancy to term. But those of us with a few more birthdays under the bridge remember that the abortion issue to the religious right was never about when a fertilized egg becomes a human. 

It was always about sex. Sex outside of marriage = always bad. Shame, shame, shame on you, Murphy Brown. And your little bastard, too.

With no other cartoons from June, 1992 to show here, let's now leap ahead another decade.

"Mixed Marriage," for Q Syndicate, June, 2002

To balance the drawing vs. publication discrepancy of my Dan Quayle cartoon, this next cartoon was actually drawn in December (hence the 2001 copyright tag) for release in June.

As helpful as it may be to have some ready-drawn cartoons on hand for those occasions when I wouldn't be sending a fresh new one for syndication, it is nearly impossible to predict what topics and issues will be a propos in the future. Routine events such as Pride Month, Thanksgiving, and Christmas only go so far, and might not coincide with a vacation, health crisis, or everyday writer's block.

Continuing the topic of trying to stay in the closet:

"Out to the Ballgame," June, 2002

Now, I don't remember whether there was some ballpark that observed Pride Month with a Cross-Dressers Get In Free Day in 2002. But this cartoon does remind me of the time a guy pretended to be Front Row Amy at a Milwaukee Brewers game some years back. 

Front Row Amy is a Milwaukee institution of sorts. For years, this young lady has had season tickets in a front row seat behind home plate. She always pays rapt attention to the game, keeps score, and applauds every pitch that goes the Brewers' way. You never, ever see her having refreshments of any kind.

She favors — exclusively — very low-cut tops that highlight her impressive cleavage. In tight TV shots of left-handed batters, you can't miss that cleavage in the background. These days, she always wears a facemask, but Brewers fans would recognize her anywhere.

She doesn't attend each and every home game; her seat may be empty, but there's usually somebody else more than happy to fill such a prime spot. And for one game, it was some dude who showed up in a long-haired black wig and a top that was as low-cut as any of hers.

Until a later inning when he switched to a Batman costume.

Finally, I could have drawn this Pride Month cartoon six months early, but I didn't.

President Obama had rescinded the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy back in December, 2010; and yes, military recruiters did start showing up at Pride events to enlist new recruits. 

The homophobic Right has since dropped the word "recruiting" in favor of the apparently more ominous sounding "grooming," so this cartoon doesn't work as well as it did ten years ago. I mean, this guy could be telling Darlene that he spied a hair stylist's booth or a dog show, but do you even find that sort of thing at Pride events? 

So, no, it doesn't make sense as an editorial cartoon with groomers instead of recruiters. But fear not: there are still opportunities for parody.

Some enchanted evening
You may see a groomer
With a sense of humor
across a crowded room.
You'd better decide
to hang up the phone
And leave any briders or groomers alone!  

Q Toon: Count Your Blessings

 

By now, every possible joke about Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. watching his wife cuckold him with the pool boy has been done to death. 

But in these dark times, we all need the comfort and solace of knowing that someone who richly deserves it is having a worse day than we are. So here's one more.

Q Toon: Now You See It

Shortly after I posted this cartoon to Q Syndicate, news of the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision that legal protections for LGBTQ employees are constitutional. Their rather surprising ruling, written by Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, has overshadowed the Trump administration's having finalized rules eliminating nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ persons in health care and health insurance.

"HHS respects the dignity of every human being, and as we have shown in our response to the pandemic, we vigorously protect and enforce the civil rights of all to the fullest extent permitted by our laws as passed by Congress," said Roger Severino, who directs the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services, in a written statement announcing that the HHS rule had become final. The rule is set to go into effect by mid-August.
It is one of many rules and regulations put forward by the Trump administration that defines "sex discrimination" as only applying when someone faces discrimination for being female or male, and does not protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), prohibits discrimination in health coverage and care. It bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in health programs and activities that receive federal funding. That these protections include transgender persons is supported by a rule adopted by HHS in 2016 and by most lower courts.

The Corrupt Trump Administration's repeal of the 2016 rule has been a long time coming, however; this is the fourth cartoon I've drawn in as many years about Severino and his determination to allow discrimination against LGBTQ patients and insurance consumers. "We're going back to the plain meaning of those terms, which is based on biological sex," Severino said in 2017, adding that the rule could save hospitals and insurers and others $2.9 billion over five years since they will be relieved of the requirement to print notices of nondiscrimination in several languages.

Under the new rule, a transgender person could, for example, be refused care for a checkup at a doctor's office, said Lindsey Dawson, associate director of HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Other possible scenarios include a transgender man being denied treatment for ovarian cancer, or a hysterectomy not being covered by an insurer — or costing more when the procedure is related to someone's gender transition.

Whether this week's court decision will have any impact on Mr. Severino's new rules will depend on having another lawsuit work its way up to the Supremes. The National Center for Transgender Equality is putting on a brave front, but anything can happen. This week's cases turned on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which deals expressly with employment issues and specifically includes protections against sex discrimination. Health care falls under Title VI of the Act, which does not mention sex discrimination.

Will that be enough for Justices Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh to lasso Roberts and Gorsuch back to the right-wing corral? It is not as if any of them have a great deal of sympathy for Obamacare to begin with.

Q Toon: Some Children See Him

Hey, we want in on the fun, too.

This isn't the first time I've drawn a cartoon outing Santa Claus, which shouldn't surprise anyone who realizes that I've been drawing for an LGBT media syndicate for 16 years. The owner of the syndicate back in the '90's (a traditionalist Jew, as it happens) thought that one such cartoon would offend Christian readers. I guess he figured that Santa Claus was a religious figure to some people.

Yes, I know he's sort of based on St. Nicholas, the Anatolian Christian from the third and fourth Century. But as far as I know, no Christian sect believes that Hagios Nikólaos lives at the North Pole with his cadre of elves and flying reindeer, temping at Macy's and sliding down chimneys in the middle of the night.

Except, perhaps, the Palins.