For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 08, 2022

My favorite line in this whole arc is coming

Know of any LGBTQ+ who never told their parents their whole lives even after the parents’ deaths?

I don’t agree that it’s a lie. If people make assumptions about you, that’s on them.

The lie is when you tell your mother “She is coming to visit to see if she can handle the -40 F winters” and you know she is coming to be the other half of the wedding couple.

Always tell the truth…if it comes out later, respect is or could be lost. Today, this is a non issue , just a fact of life. we’re here for a good time, not a long time. Make it work for you.

To come down to it, there is no need to tell anybody anything about your personal life. I was 21 before I had my only girlfriend, and nobody ever mentioned it when I was around. I didn’t care what anybody said when I was not around – it was none of my business.

Michael is being a little bit of a hypocrite here. He had been dating Martha for 2 solid years before Elly found out accidentally when she spotted them in the mall holding hands. If he didn’t have to tell his mother about Martha, then Connie does not need to know about Ben.

If a mother loves her child….sigh. in a perfect world. I love my kids, period. Who they Date or Marry doesn’t negate that love… And neither is gay. But if they were, they’re still my kids.

One of my close friends hid her sexuality for a long time but WE figured it out. We noticed that she did not participate in girls’ talk about guys. She did not flirt with guys. She never talked about boys in general. Then we went to college and all that became more evident. She was in a gang of all girls that did not date. THEN she had a crush on ME. At the time I did not catch on. We were friends for a long time. I noticed that she seemed to hang around a lot more. Then I started seeing a guy, THEN she got really got mad at me and cut me off. At the time, I was confused and bewildered. I did not think I did anything to piss her off. But, as such is life, I moved on, met my husband and got married, She came to my wedding to my surprise, and with another girl. I realized she wanted to bury the hatchet so to speak and that her friend encouraged her. Some time after the wedding, she came to me and confessed she had a crush on me and was upset I did not repricorate. She experienced a lot of confusion and went to see a counselor. She apologized for her behavior and told me the girl she came to my wedding with was actually her girlfriend. I told her I knew she was lesbian all along. She smiled and said she was surprised when others said the same. She later married a different woman and been happily married for some 10 years now. Her mom took it hard, mostly because her brother is a lifetime bachelor and she doesn’t want to have kids. She wanted to be a grandma. But she came to terms with it and have a good mom and daughter relationship. I also have a good number of LBQT friends. They are just people, like anyone else.That’s why I loved Lawrence’s Story. I understand it and was kind of in Mike’s shoes.

Just introduce your BF, Lawrence.

Wow! I feel so bad now. Even though I am heterosexual, at the age of seventeen, it never occurred to me that I should sit down and tell my mother that because she needed to know!

“She has to know, Lawrence.”

“You’re right Mike. Hey mom! The job of hitting a nail always works better if you hold the hammer at the end of the handle instead of holding it right near the hammer head. Just something my science teacher said about leverage.”

Mothers have a tendency to “suss out” these things without help. :)

Maybe it’s none of Mike’s business. Our daughter told us when she was 17 and I just gave her a big hug and told her how much I loved her.

I know I am in the minority here, but I like to keep personal things private. I don’t feel the need to shout my orientation from the rooftops.

Nobody needs to know if I am gay or straight, it does not affect my job performance and it is nobodys business who I slept with last night.

It is called discretion.

Some closet’s are quite comfortable.

I don’t think it’s a lie… Unless Ben has been encouraging Lawrence to tell and he won’t… but if Ben is telling Lawrence NOT to tell, then what we’ve got going on here is some classic grooming… “Hey mom. I’m barely 17 and I’m dating a 20-year-old man… He told me not to tell you”.…

Okay, while I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, at least wait until she puts the hammer away before you tell her. …just saying.

How is not saying anything a lie? A lie would be telling her he’s straight.

None of Michael’s business

First Michael gets angry, and now he demands Lawrence tell his parents without any regard for how Lawrence may feel about it. Michael knows Lawrence better than Lawrence knows Lawrence? What a know-it-all.

Well meaning friends can sure mess up our lives. Listen to your inner voice, not well meaning friends….who can mess up your life.

Telling her about the 20 year old man would be the worst part. But telling anybody you’re gay in the 1990s must have been scary.

Wait Michael – why is it YOUR business if and when Lawrence needs to talk to his mother? About ANYthing?

Michael needs to back off; Laurence is allowed to choose the time and place, no one else.

He’s not gay. He’s a faggot! Gay is a happy person, not some freak!

There are also those that wouldn’t tell and got married and had kids like society expected.

Sure is nice to get back to this gripping storyline at last. After where it was left off last week, hemming and hawing about fluff all this week was very fristrating.

There is nothing in Straight (i.e. heterosexual) experience that’s analogous to “coming out.” And coming out is a unique experience for every LGBTQ person. But also, in many cases, parents aren’t tremendously surprised to hear the news, even if they necessarily WANT to. Parents are very perceptive about their kids.

We need to keep in mind the setting of this strip is 1993. Given the current events of this time, we may see this in a forthcoming strip:

Charlie Brown: “OK, everybody, it is up to me to make this field goal. Here goes…”

Announcer: “We interrupt this strip for a GoComics breaking news report."

Scene shows a Ford Bronco driving along Transcanada Highway, being chased by several RCMP cruisers.

“We have been informed that Lawrence is in this vehicle. We are now getting a SATCOM of the driver talking to police on his car phone.”

Michael{voiceover}: “My name is MP. You know who I am; gosh golly darn it!”

Announcer: “We now return you to Peanuts, already in progress.”

Linus: “He did it; Charlie Brown kicked the ball and made the field goal! I don’t think we will ever see that again in a hundred years!”

Well,I remember how THAT advice turned out.At least at first.

Mike wants HIMSELF to have a happy ending about thiswhole mixed-up thing.

Lawrence may be gay, but he is not “gay”.

We have not seen Lawrence participate in any Gay Pride parades.

We have not seen Lawrence march on Ottawa demanding more and more handouts as well as increased government control over peoples’ lives.

Maybe wait until she puts those tools away

There are a lot of good thoughts here on both sides of the issue. It is great that we are having a discussion without rancor and without insults from either side.

That being said, we need to remember that Lynn was telling a story here and in order to move that story along Mike needed to push Lawrence into outing himself. That’s all there is to it. Mike has no agenda other than Lynn’s. (And yes, you may all now sing that old comics song.)

If a straight kid doesn’t ever need to tell their parents they are straight, a gay kid never needs to tell their parents they are gay.

Lawrence’s family will eventually figure it out. I didn’t tell my parents I was gay until I was 37. My siblings knew well before. Come to find out, my folks knew for years, but it was “my story to tell”. I was in denial at Lawrence’s age. It would be a few years yet before I came out to myself and would have died if my folks found out. It’s a much harder choice to live in a lie or live being out than many people realize. Less so now, perhaps, but in the time the strip was written, it was a very hard choice.

Hey, I just noticed something. Usually the convention for comic strips is to indicate that characters are speaking in hushed tones by bordering the speech bubbles with dotted lines. Lynn hasn’t done that here. For all appearances, Michael and Lawrence are openly discussing a secret in normal conversational tones while the person from whom they’re trying to keep the secret is easily close enough to overhear them.

Just tangential to this, but too funny to pass up (something my wife found on the ‘net): "Today I accidentally called Alexa ’SIRI’ – now the thermostat is set to 90F and my doors and window won’t unlock."

We always knew this day would come, but even the Jetsons didn’t warn us.

My twin brother rest his soul had a son who gay was razed in church kind boy very smart lest knew only difference is his Sexual preferences he still one off God children he did not askTo be brought into this world with this issue.

I couldn’t stand this when I first read this strip: Michael has no right to lecture Lawrence of when to come out to his parents. That is a highly personal decision with potentially serious domestic consequences and it should solely be Lawrence’s decision.

Granted that old, comfortable clothes are best for repair work, but his mom looks like she might come out to him first.

In the mid 80’s I had a few gay hospital patients who didn’t tell their parents they were gay until they were dying of AIDS. Somehow being gay wasn’t the toughest reveal…

There was an interesting letter to the editor two days ago. It seems that when this story arc was first published (1993?) our local morning paper did not publish it. The reason given was that the paper did not feel it was “appropriate.” I didn’t know about this as we didn’t take the morning paper, we were ‘afternooners.’ It IS being published this time around as the paper and some of us hereabouts have grown up. I say some because we do have many people here still fighting to keep us in the 1800s.

The characters can sure get tall and skinny in silhouette. Mike and Lawrence are giants in the first panel.

By the way, does anyone know if Lawrence is adopted? I tried looking it up, but could only find the gay story arc. Thanks! :)