Where Am I Supposed To Pee?
Panel 1
(A white woman in jeans and a t-shirt, with a big mop of curly hair and glasses, is holding out a clipboard and a pen towards a Black woman with a polka-dot skirt, sleeveless blouse, carrying a purse. The polka-dot skirt woman has stopped to listen to what clipboard woman is saying. They are on a sidewalk; we can see a tree, a fire hydrant, and a parked car in the background. A dog sniffs the hydrant.)
Clipboard: Sign the petition for the “Bathroom Bill!” It makes it illegal for people to use public bathrooms that don’t match the sex on their birth certificate!
Panel 2
(Polka-Dot has turned towards Clipboard and gestures towards herself by placing her hand on her upper chest.)
Polka-Dot: Actually, I’m trans, and there’s something I really want to ask you.
Panel 3
(A large panel, showing Polka Dot shrugging while looking a bit angry. Behind her we can see a street full of buildings drawn in a cartoony style. Her dialog is written in large bubble letters, forming the title for this comic strip.)
Polka-Dot: Where am I supposed to pee?
Panel 4
(Clipboard, looking irritated, holds her hands out in a “it’s so easy!” gesture, while Polka-Dot clasps her hands together and looks a bit horrified at what Clipboard is suggesting.)
Clipboard: Does it say “male” on your birth certificate? Then use the men’s room.
Polka-Dot: But I’m no safer in a men’s room than any other woman!
Panel 5
(This entire panel is a thought balloon extending from the previous panel, showing what Polka-Dot is visualizing as she speaks. The image shows Polka-Dot, having just walked into a men’s room, looking frightened as three hulking male figures approach her. Polka-Dot is holding up a sign that says “I’m Trans.”
Polka-Dot’s dialog in this panel isn’t spoken by the Polka-Dot in Polka-Dot’s visualization; rather, it’s an extension of the dialog from the previous panel.)
Polka-Dot: And I’d out myself every time I use a bathroom! That’s really dangerous! Lots of trans people have been assaulted!
Panel 6
(Polka-Dot is attempting to explain further, but Clipboard holds out her hands in a “stop talking” gesture.)
Polka-Dot: I’m just asking that you think about how trans folks are supposed to–
Clipboard: That’s not gonna happen.
Polka-Dot: But–
Panel 7
(Much to Polka-Dot’s surprise, Clipboard reaches up with both hands and lifts the entire top of her head neatly off, as if it were a hat. We can see the top of Clipboard’s brain, and that her brain is bound with many tight black cords.)
Clipboard: Here, look at my brain.
Polka-Dot: Whoa!
Panel 8
(A close-up on Clipboard’s exposed brain, and the thick black cords binding it; Clipboard points at the brain with her left hand.)
Clipboard: See that stuff strangling my brain? That’s fear. Fear of things I don’t understand. Fear of you.
Panel 9
(Polka-Dot looks concerned, while Clipboard yells angrily.)
Polka-Dot: All that fear strangling your brain looks really painful. Why not take it off?
Clipboard: Never!
Panel 10
(Still looking irritated, Clipboard explains. Behind her we can see the city as a dark silhouette.)
Clipboard: Uprooting my fear would require lots of work. I’d rather direct my fear at you. That way I don’t have to confront it.
Panel 11
(A closeup on Clipboard, laughing like a B-Movie villain. We can still see her bound brain.)
Clipboard: That’s how fear always wins! Until everyone stops seeing trans people as freaks to be feared, I can’t lose! Ha ha ha!
Panel 12
(Final panel. We are in a park, but there are science fiction elements; there’s a spaceship floating in the background. Two children, one on a hoverboard, and one with pointy ears and with a robot dog on a leash, are talking. In the foreground, Clipboard – brain still strangled – reacts with frustration to what the kids are saying.)
Hoverboard Child: My teacher says people used to try to stop trans people from going to the bathroom!
Robot Dog Child: Weird! Where would President Hernandez pee?
Clipboard: Dammit!
