The Celestial Politics of Trans Bans
April 6th, 2024 Barry Posted in Becky Hawkins collaborations, LGBT cartoons | No Comments »
This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels.
PANEL 1
A reporter is pushing their microphone right in front of the Governor’s face. The Governor is wearing a suit jacket over a turtleneck with a necklace on top of the shirt, and has obviously professionally done hair. She looks a little uncertain.
REPORTER: Governor, what’s your position on the gender affirming care ban?
GOVERNOR: The bill blocking doctors from treating trans kids? Um…
PANEL 2
A close-up on the governor’s face. Next to the governor, floating in the air, a little angel has appeared with a “POOF!” sound effect and a little white cloud. The governor is looking at the shoulder angel out of the corners of her eyes.
ANGEL: This is an awful bill!
PANEL 3
A close shot of the shoulder angel let’s us see her outfit clearly. She has light purple hair combed to one side, and her head is buzzcut on the other side. She’s wearing a white leather jacket with metal studs and a zipper on the sleeve, a white skirt, fishnets, and white boots. She’s also got little white wings and a halo floating over her head.
She has her hands fisted and looks a little angry.
ANGEL: This bill is pandering to bigots! It’s giving in to a moral panic! And it’ll do so much harm to trans kids!
PANEL 4
A longer shot, allowing us to see the shoulder angel, the Governor, and – appearing on the opposite side of the Governor from the angel in a “POOF!” and a considerably darker cloud – a shoulder devil. The devil is a woman in a red two-piece suit over a yellow v-neck blouse, and heels to match the blouse. She has two horns, bat-like wings, and is carrying a trident.
The Governor looks thoughtful, hand on her chin, one eyebrow lifted, looking at the shoulder devil out of the corners of her eyes.
ANGEL: All to solve a problem that doesn’t even exist!
DEVIL: Ahem
PANEL 5
The shoulder devil, raising her arms as if cheerleading, speaks to the Governor, who is now looking more directly at the devil. The angel’s eyes widen in dismay.
DEVIL: Fearmongering wins elections.
PANEL 6
Looking more confident, the Governor is now speaking into the microphone. Her text is smaller sized and has no word balloon, indicating that it’s sort of a background detail. The angel has her arms crossed and is sitting (in mid air) with her legs crossed, looking at the Governor with annoyance. The devil is holding her pitchfork above her head in both hands and practically dancing, a huge and evil grin, victorious.
GOVERNOR: …protect children from perverts blah blah blah…
ANGEL: Well, this sucks.
DEVIL: This is great! Next let’s do a law forcing teachers to out trans students!