Teaching Tolerance in the 'Toons

I've been a loyal fan of Lynn Johnston's comic strip "For Better or For Worse' ever since I started reading newspapers. I've suffered with her cartoon family through puberty, braces, glasses, a new baby, and teenage smoking. No matter what the problem, be it loud music or alcoholism, Johnston has proven herself a competent, sensitive writer on a wide variety of family issues.

A few days before Spring Break, I was leafing through The Boston Globe before my 9 a.m. Chem class. As I scanned the comics page, this text caught my eye:

"I'm in love.... but not with a girl."

It turns out that one of the characters in the strip, Mike's best friend Lawrence, has announced that he is gay. This is the beginning of the third week of the sequence. So far, Lawrence has "come out" to his mother and to Mike. The focus of the recent strips has been on how they have dealt with Lawrence's announcement.

As the first gay character to appear in a major syndicated family comic, Lawrence is naturally the focus of much controversy.

At least thirteen newspapers across the nation have decided to drop "For Better or For Worse" for the duration of the Lawrence story-line, and at least seven more have canceled the strip entirely.

In their explanations for dropping the strips, several newspapers have offered similar rationales. One common concern is that the strip will just be a sounding-board for the gay-rights movement and, essentially, become a single issue strip. But Johnston has already announced that Lawrence's homosexuality is only a subplot and will not play an important role in the future. So that should not be an issue.

Nackey Loeb, publisher of The Union Leader of Manchester, raised another objection in a front page editorial about why she had chosen to drop "For Better or For Worse." In an interview with the Globe she said that this storyline is part of a crusade "to have the homosexual lifestyle viewed as acceptable and morally justifiable."

Well, maybe it is. But I don't want to debate morality and theology. Neither does Lynn Johnston. No matter what your opinion of homosexuality may be, this comic strip teaches its readers that homosexual teenagers are kids, too.

What's important is that there are homosexual youth, and their problems are as much of a family issue as alcohol use or peer pressure. Other strips have shied away from such controversial issues. In discussing previous topics as anorexia and teen-age smoking. Lynn Johnston has proven herself a tactful, well-informed writer, and I can think of no one better to address this issue. If, indeed, the propagandizing effect of this comic strip is to be protested, remember that groups opposed to gay rights haven't ever offered to do anything but condemn the good intentions of others.

Loeb also criticized Johnston for deciding "to join the political propaganda ranks" and trying to camouflage her "editorial comments" as entertainment.

Johnston's message is clear. Whether that message is exactly "political" in nature is debatable. However, "For Better or For Worse" has never aspired to be just another entertaining comic strip like "Garfield" or "Zippy". It has always tried to teach some sort of lesson, so this most recent series fits well with the comic strip's mission. Johnston has not suddenly changed the tone of her strip, she has just offended a new audience.

Another, and apparently more sane, objection might be that children should not be learning about homosexuality from a comic strip.

First, I doubt that any readers of the strip will be learning about homosexuality for the first time. Even in first grade, it was taboo to wear green on Thursday, because it meant that "you were gay." In middle school, the most popular jokes were the insensitive homophobic ones. The modern eight-year-old is probably well aware of homosexuality.

Secondly, there are worse places to learn about homosexuality than "For Better or For Worse." Obviously, we would rather have our children learn how to deal properly with the fact that one of their peers is gay, e.g., don't assume they fit certain stereotypes, don't try to alienate them, don't burn crosses on their front lawns, etc. This is not the kind of attitude that a child will develop by listening to his primary-school peers.

Of course, in the best of all possible worlds, education about homosexuality would happen in the home and in the schools. In the general absence of this, "For Better or For Worse" is as good a place as any to learn.

Some on the left might object that Lynn Johnston isn't qualified to speak on this issue. After all, she isn't gay; she's married and the mother of two children. What would she know about being gay?

Again, this strip isn't about being gay. It's about dealing with people who come out of the closet, and Johnston knows about that. Eleven years ago, Johnston's brother-in-law revealed to her and her family that he is gay. We can expect that "For Better or For Worse" will treat this plot line in the educated manner we have come to expect from it.

Lynn Johnston should be congratulated for writing this series. Her critics should see her comic strip for what it really is--one of the most compassionate voices in the newspaper.