Lynn Johnston on the overall reaction to the Lawrence "coming out" storyline

TOM HEINTJES: As we conduct this interview, the controversy over Lawrence revealing his homosexuality is raging -- What has been the reaction to it from various people: readers, newspaper editors, your colleagues?
LYNN JOHNSTON: It has been mixed everywhere. To begin with, when we announced that the storyline was going to run, people who had no access to the material became violently opposed, saying it was pornography. Very few newspaper editors took that position, though -ー most newspaper editors are schooled to see both sides of an issue before you make a stand. Yet some were outraged. They were not expecting this. They did not read the literature that came with it. They don't feel that comics are anything more than icing on the cake, they don't have to read them -- they just wax them and stick them down. The editors who didn't read the notice alerting them that they might want to run some alternate material were caught off-guard. I really do feel for them, because it was an unusual subject for the comics page. Not that it's unusual for For Better Or For Worse, but they just don't like the comics to deal with issues, and especially not this one.
TOM HEINTJES: What was your intent in creating the sequence?
LYNN JOHNSTON: I wanted to challenge myself to write a good story about something that's largely misunderstood, and to show that it's the kid next door, anybody in any neighborhood. It's a story about friendship and acceptance; there was not one mention of sex. Not one mention of anything that could not be talked about comfortably. Considering the climate of the '90s, when you can turn on any average sitcom and you get vulgarity and explicit sexual discussion, open talk of body parts, naked people in bed, you wonder where the humor is in today's comedy writing. And considering that a most unfortunate view of sexuality is seen every day on every channel, with the exception of PBS and Disney, I guess, where are the family values we're talking about?
TOM HEINTJES: I was thinking that in a so-called "family newspaper" the most depraved events can be described in lurid detail -- the Jeffrey Dahmer case, mass murders, all sorts of horrific events -- and yet this sequence in For Better Or For Worse is deemed unacceptable.
LYNN JOHNSTON: Fortunately, many people did not find it unacceptable. Many editors said, "This is interesting. This is a challenge. Let's see if people are reading and let's see how they respond." Generally, that was the attitude in the big markets. The Chicago Tribune has been wholly supportive. The Boston Globe, the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Vancouver Sun, the Los Angeles Times -- on and on and on, there has been tremendous support from the bigger centers. In the smaller centers, and especially the centers where there are a lot of very strong fundamentalist beliefs that this is evil and that homosexuality is a matter of choice and all this stuff, the hatred runs so hot and heavy. There is so much fear. And in those centers, the editors are part of the community. In a community of 20,000 people, the editor goes downtown for coffee, and everyone knows him and can attack him. And from the privacy and obscurity of my home, I can produce a series of drawings and I will receive a certain amount of mail attacking me, but I am comforted by the fact that I don't have to face these people personally day after day. So I understand the position of editors who said, "I'll cancel it," or "I'll run it on the editorial page," or however they decided to handle it. I think everybody handled it as well as they could under the circumstances. One interesting thing is, right at the very beginning, the angry, bitter, vicious attitude of "I will not admit this into my home! I will not acknowledge that this exists! I am blindly forcing this entire issue out of my life!” was overwhelming. And I thought, “What have I done? I really believed that people in this century would be wiling to take the time to look at what I was doing before they fired both barrels, But this happened before the strips even began to run.
TOM HEINTJES: This attitude was predominantly among the readership, not the editors?
LYNN JOHNSTON: The readership. It started off with the Detroit Free Press. The bulletin had come through with the artwork many weeks in advance of publication. One young reporter there, who was gay, was really excited about the prospects of the strip's publication. He wanted to do an article immediately, so he interviewed me and put the article on the wire service, which goes everywhere. It was very supportive, and it went out to editors who hadn't even had a chance to review the comics. A lot of editors ran the wire story, and it turned on the non-thinking but reacting readers, people who are blindly devoted to a belief that has no other side to it. There is no other question involved, this is just the way it is, and you have no right to introduce this into my home. So that's what rose like a Medusa out of the clouds, and from my perspective, I could see why people do not take a stand on issues in a community like that, because the fear of reprisal from these incredibly strong groups who are so powerful... religious fervor is like adrenaline, and it can overpower almost anything in its way. Because of this, I can see why information is suppressed, why people are oppressed, why so much goes unachieved. It's because of blind intolerance. Lee Salem [editor at Universal Press Syndicate] told me this would happen. Especially when he saw the second half of the series, he said, "You really have no idea how vicious and angry and hateful people are in the United States about this subject." Canada is far more tolerant. And I argued with him. I said, “This is the 90s -ー people are so much more aware! People are talking about it! Look at television and newspapers!" There are articles here covering, word for word, trials of child molesters, and they describe it in detail. And I thought that in a climate where people are talking about sexuality in so many unsavory ways, let's do something positive for a change and show that this is the kid next door. This is the kid who walks your dog. This is the young person who operates on you at the clinic! Who knows? It's everywhere, and you can't discriminate against something that is there by birth.
TOM HEINTJES: I guess your faith in human nature was a little shaken when you found out the truth about people in the '90s, eh?
LYNN JOHNSTON: In fact, that's the truth. I was surprised by this blind hatred that I guess is born of fear. There is a fraction of society that wants to believe in "a leader," and not believe in themselves. They don't want to trust their own judgment; they would rather blindly follow the leadership of someone else. That's the easy way out, I think. It's much harder to say, "OK, let's think. Let's not simply obey." It took a while for the thinking people to come together. They waited until it was published before they responded, and when they read it, the positive response happened. They responded partly to retaliate against all the negative stuff, but partly also to say, "This is appropriate, because of all the teenagers who kill themselves, one third of them do it over their sexuality." They knew that these people who are discriminated against are not part of an evil power, but are simply people who must be acknowledged, accepted and respected. They are simply a part of our lives. They are a part of society. There is an undeniable population. So the thinking people started making their opinions known, and many people who had never talked openly about this subject before were defending the story. Some papers were even being picketed in favor of running the strip. Before the strip had really started to run, some papers were being picketed against the strip, but after it began to run, a lot people really wanted to read it. I know it took the syndicate quite awhile to respond to people who want to see the story because their own papers had prevented them from seeing it.
TOM HEINTJES: How did Universal satisfy them?
LYNN JOHNSTON: They printed up a little booklet, and anyone who wants to see the story can send them a self-addressed stamped envelope and they'll send them the literature.
TOM HEINTJES: When you decided to create this sequence, did you consult with Lee Salem so he would have an idea of what you were getting into?
LYNN JOHNSTON: Yes. I wrote out the dialogue first, and I faxed him the dialogue. Then I drew up the first section of it, to where Lawrence confides in Michael, and that section ends with Michael punching Lawrence in the arm playfully. That was sent off about eight weeks ahead of deadline, and that was well ahead. Generally, we' re about six weeks to the good, and I can get by with about four weeks or even three weeks. So there were plenty of weeks there in case I needed to backtrack and produce something else. Lee was very matter-of-fact about accepting it, and I told him I was going to go ahead with the rest of the story. He wanted to see what I was doing, so I faxed him the pencil roughs to the next section. He was concerned at that point. He said, "Maybe this goes on too long -- do you know how angry people are going to be?" But he left it up to me, and said that if I wanted to do it, they would give their support and stand behind me. But he said, "Keep in mind that you are going to take some flak." I asked him if I would lose papers. He said, "Absolutely." I asked him how many, and he said he didn't know. I asked him, "Would I lose 10?” He said I probably wouldn't. I asked him if I would lose six papers, and he said probably not. I said, "Three?" and he said I maybe would lose three. I told him that even if I lose three papers I think the story is worth telling, and he said it was my decision, and they would stand behind me. And the rest is history.
TOM HEINTJES: How taken aback was Lee by the overwhelming reaction?
LYNN JOHNSTON: He wasn't taken aback at all. He was steeled for it. He's used to dealing with Garry Trudeau's detractors. I thought the people at the syndicate might be angered by the extra work, but they were kind of charged up by it.
TOM HEINTJES: Any publicity is good publicity?
LYNN JOHNSTON: Well, in fact, that's what John McMeel [co-founder of Universal Press Syndicate] said to me. He was kind of enjoying it. Now, I haven't spoken to him over the past week. [laughter]