Rain
Comic 570 - Photograph
Author Notes:
This update and the last were not scripted. In fact, Ana was not planned to be in this chapter at all. The original plan was to not even bring up this piece of information for like another four or five chapters. However, there has been a lot of debate surrounding Ana's character, and I would say a good number of people had a decent idea of where I was going with her. And with people catching on, I didn't want to drag it out longer than necessary (in an effort to try not to repeat the Maria x Emily thing that MOST people figured out much sooner than I'd anticipated). I'm learning. XD
So, pat yourself on the back if you picked up on this much of Ana's story sooner than now. And happy surprise twist page if you didn't. Perhaps the last page makes a little bit more sense now if you reread it. ;)
Still, with all that said, I hesitate to call this page a "reveal". Not because a lot of people guessed this far. Rather, it's because we're not done, and nobody (as far as I saw) had the whole thing. Ana's pretty complicated. So expect to be learning much more about her in the future...
...just not next time. Scene change. XD
©2004-2014
Rain, all characters and all other aspects of the story are copyright material belonging to me.
And don't forget, Rain - Volume 1 and 2 are available at Lulu!
I know, that it isn't unrealistic to expect to see more LGBT characters in a LGBT comic, but the fact that we have so many QUILTBAGs in one school and in one clique is kinda ridiculous.
It's not at all unrealistic or ridiculous for there to be a gathering of various orientations and identities in a group. According to my own experience (and the testimonies of many readers), it's seems pretty common for people of this sort to just kinda gravitate towards one another. Like people find each other.
As for there being so many, the QUILTBAG characters so to speak, actually make up less than a third of the overall cast. It probably just seems like so many because the ones that fall into those demographics are just the ones in the foreground of the story. They're still actually the minority.
I really hadn't thought of that. I honestly assumed they were in the majority.
It's nice that you capture not only the situation of us transfolk, but also of our families and friends so incredibly well. Thank you for that. Reading your work has allowed me to place my own situation in relief and perhaps understand it better. The value of that, and therefore of your work, cannot possibly be understated.
I disagree. Maybe it was my experience, but I always thought that I was the only trans kid in my school. Today I know that this is not true, but even if there were other LGBTs, they probably were doing the same thing I did: hiding who were, like it was the nuclear silo codes. Not even my parents knew that I was trans(and they still don't).
The whole reason I think the whole LGBT gathering is unrealistic, is because Rain and the group are still in high school. A catholic high school. In the American South(I think). Being very open. Also, most people there seem to not care about that. Also, Father Quenton is a blind idiot, if he can't see anything that happened in his own school in the months.
IDK, maybe it's because I live in one of the Baltic States, where you HAVE to be in deep stealth always in order to survive, but I doubt that same doesn't apply in America.
I thought I was the only LGBT kid in my school too. In a couple cases, I've learned that that's not quite true later in life. Maybe it's because everyone was more secretive when I was in school (they're a lot less so nowadays, from things I've been told by my high school age readers). But it shouldn't HAVE to be a secret.
Growing up, I was afraid to come out and be myself, because nothing out there offered a positive representation of the person I wanted to be. I feared it was impossible and hid myself, and suffered. It was scary, and it was painful, and I hated myself, and I don't want anyone to have to go through what I did. So the story I want to write is inclusive: featuring a number of characters of varying orientations and gender identities, existing together and supporting each other. If something like this actually sounds so unbelievable to a person, that's only proving the necessity of such a story to me.
I've said this in the past many-a-time to many-a-person, but if you want a story with all cis, all hetero characters, you DO have your pick. They make up the vast majority of all fiction out there. That doesn't make it normal; it just makes it common. I'm writing this for myself and everyone else who just wants to feel represented and to know there is hope that leading the life they want is possible.
If nothing else the US is a big country, so even low rates of trans incidence means a fair number of people, and opportunity to move around and also enough people to support supportive experts somewhere.
Not that life is rosy by any means, just that "the US is a pretty conservative First World country" may lead you astray, here.
Also few webcomics -- or stories in general -- are into 100% realism and I feel little reason to begrudge a queer/trans concentrated one. In science fiction there's an idea of "you get one change" and here it'd be such a concentration, as opposed to flying laser-eyed ferret-squirrels, or AnthroPCs, or pink boneless cats, or...
I find it funny that you think that Nordic countries are worse in terms of LGBT acceptance than America, considering it's one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to LGBT rights. And yeah, the whole Sweden sterilizing transfolk was dumb, but at least they fixed it, whereas America would make a big fuss about it and when it would actually get taken down, the Left and Right will start shouting at each other even louder. Granted, I live in the Russian part of the Baltic and the less I say about Russian "ideas" about LGBTs, the better. Also, I just looked up the whole "transgender sterilization" and found my own country there. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/most-european-countries-force-sterilization-transgender-people-map
Yay, more reasons to get out!
It doesn't seem to be much better in the Rainverse either, considering how much Ana had to move.
@Jocelyn
I admire your optimism and I'd say that had the story taken place in college/university, I'd believe it. But high school? No, I don't buy it. High school is the time when I wanted to finish my courses, get my diplomas and get out without even a trace of me left there. Am I wrong to assume, that most LGBTs(especially the Ts) wouldn't want to do the same?
I'm not really sure what you want me to say.
When it comes down to it, I'm going to continue to write my story the way I feel is best to achieve the message I'm aiming for. You don't have to buy into every word of it. While a fair bit of the story is inspired by actual people and occurrences, the story itself is still fiction. This means if there are a couple coincidences here and there, or things that might seem unlikely, that's fine because it's a story. In large part, it's a thing I made up. And as the author, I have the right to do whatever I like with my story. I do try my best to keep it as believable as possible, but I'm not against taking a couple liberties for the sake of making a point or keeping things interesting.
Contrary to my guess, they do have the expertise, and once approved the hormones are free or cheap with the health care system, but they have or have had a very strong effect from suspicious gatekeepers. Whereas the US has 50-100x as many people and thus many more gatekeepers to shop among.
"America would make a big fuss about it and when it would actually get taken down, the Left and Right will start shouting at each other even louder." What? AFAIK we simply don't have that requirement.
"High school is the time when I wanted to finish my courses, get my diplomas and get out without even a trace of me left there." Don't know what that means. I'd think most GBLT teens, *given other such teens*, would hook up and make friendships just like 'normal' teens. Sure, might be unlikely to have multiple T in one high school, but I don't care.
"First point"
The thing is, in progressive countries like Sweden and Canada, you are less likely to meet gatekeepers who say "no". And that's just the medical stuff. Socially, if you're trans living in Canada or Sweden, people are generally nicer and more accepting.
As for the "old assholes running the country", that's true about every country on the planet.
"What? AFAIK we simply don't have that requirement."
Last time I checked, American politics were a trainwreck. Also, that the Right usually allies itself with bigots, while the Left with the progressives.
"Don't know what that means."
When the high school ends many people part ways, never to see each other again. For somebody who is trans and wants to go so deep into stealth, that every trace of their previous existence as a man/woman would be forgotten, this is a great opportunity. And it is also the most soul-crushing one, for obvious reasons.
@Jocelyn
Sorry, I never tried to tell you how to write your stories. If I gave that impression, I apologize. It's just that, based from what I know about living post-op and pre-op(I'm pre-everything, so I have no experience in anything like that yet), I always assume that any stories involving a trans character isn't going to be a happy one. Having people be chipper and open about being MtF/FtM is just alien to me.
"I always assume that any stories involving a trans character isn't going to be a happy one. Having people be chipper and open about being MtF/FtM is just alien to me."
Exactly! I spent my whole childhood in fear. Afraid to come out and be me because all I ever heard was the horror stories. Testimonies I read online back then were a series of "I was disowned", "My spouse/partner left me", "I got fired", etc, and I was afraid of that being my life. But by the time I finally couldn't take it anymore and started coming out to people though, that was NOT my experience. My parents, my brother and my sister are actually probably closer to me than ever now. 95% of my friends stuck by me. I wasn't fired (but admittedly I'm self-employed, so that doesn't count). XD My point is, I started transition at 28 because I was too afraid. But if I was going to be accepted, what was the point of all my fear? If I'd just spoke up, I could've transitioned LONG ago.
That's why I write this positive story centered around high school characters. Yes, bad stuff can and does happen... but it's not an automatic guarantee. Good stuff can happen too! "It doesn't always have to end badly," as Aunt Fara once says. And rather than focus on all the doom and gloom (seriously, there's enough of that already), I want to depict that it IS possible for coming out, transitioning, and being true to oneself to be a positive experience. ^_^
That said, it is hard to compare the US as a whole to another country since things are a patch work. For instance, where I live sexual orientation and gender identity are protected classes, but that isn't true in a lot of places. And I don't think attitudes don't vary any less from place to place than the laws do in the US.
"Norway is pretty awful for anyone needing to transition. One of the worst developed nations to be in. If you manage to get the medical care, it's non-terrible but slightly less progressive than my home state of Virginia, which tends toward the conservative.
For LGB stuff, it's pretty good, though. Nobody really freaked out about me and [name], for instance."
"The gender transition clinic in Norway believes that the world consensus on transition is wrong, brags about their denial rates, strung my fiancee along for a year with the intent to deny her at the end while they continuously psychologically abused her, hurt several other people I've spoken to, and has published papers saying that people with depression should not be allowed to transition (despite that being the major sign of needing to transition.) They go out of their way to block anyone else from treating trans people, and because of this, at least one trans person castrated herself after they strung her along for years. They deserve to be on trial for human rights violations, possibly including murder through blocking necessary medicine, but despite numerous reports of medical malpractice and abuse, nobody in the government has bothered to do anything about it.
Denmark's gender clinic was even worse, the last I heard about it.
Sweden may very well be the least oppressive of the three, even when they were practicing eugenics on trans people. But they also denied a lot of transitions.
It wouldn't be a problem if gender clinics weren't trying to sue doctors who let patients go around them. The big problem is that the countries decided to put sadistic quacks in charge of their programs."
***
" Last time I checked, American politics were a trainwreck. Also, that the Right usually allies itself with bigots, while the Left with the progressives."
Yes, but we were talking specifically about mandatory sterilization of transpeople. Which AFAIK the US simply does not have in the first place, to take down or argue about. Sweden got to catch up to us, not the other way around.
The world is more complex than good or bad. The Nordic countries are not unblemished paradises; they've got their own problems with racism, right-wing politics, Christian conservatism, etc. On net, probably better than the US, but not better in every possible way.
But tell me you at least don't believe that SOCIALLY US is better than the Nordic countries.
http://www.care2.com/causes/238-trans-people-murdered-this-year-and-thats-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/2013/TDOR2013english/TvT-TMM-Table-TDOR-2013_EN.pdf
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/2013/TDOR2013english/TvT-TMM-Namelist-TDOR2013_EN.pdf
http://www.transviolencetracker.org/images/reports/TVTP%20IDAHOT%202014%20Names%20Report.pdf
I saw no Nordic countries there, but I did see several reports with US.
Old asshole politicians that are stuck up, is nothing new. Hell, one time in Russia, certain old fart prevented a Gay Pride Parade happening in Moscow, because he thought that gays were satanists. I'm not making this up.
But in due time those people will as you said "die or retire" and then the younger, more progressive people will take their place. If the society itself is bigoted to the point of murder, though, then transition would be the least of the Ts' worries.
Also, Brazil is a scary place to me now.
If the Nordic countries had the US rate of one trans murder per 20 million inhabitants, most of the time they wouldn't have any such murders -- the three core Scandinavian countries don't have 20 million people between them. And their murder rate in general is a lot lower than that of the US.
From the first PDF, Italy had 5 trans murders; scaling up for population, that's 25 vs. the US's 16. US wins again! OTOH, France had 1, which scales up to 5.
Of course, trans murders per general population isn't very informative, unless we knew trans people are 'out' or detectable at the same rates in each country. A country that was more supportive of transitions might also have more trans murders, due to more people to get killed.
In other news, Heather is pretty much confirmed as the intersex character now.
In fact I'd say this is the most likely option. Ana's dad made an error in judgement "back then"? If he knew she was female by age 3, when was the error in judgement? Most likely as a baby, it was decided to assign the baby as male and give it surgery to alter its genatalia to the typical male appearance... If this made Ana sterile, that would be an absolute tragedy.
Dad's visual design might be bland, (I guess I don't know how to tell.) but he's already a memorable character for me. I wish I had people like him in my life growing up. ^ ^ I can't wait to see what's really in store, whether it's confirmation of what I expect, or a pleasant surprise.
Guest,
Since Ana's vague mention of needing to be away for a while in the future, I've been hoping most of the main characters and probably some of the audience were in for a bit of education on intersex and what it means.
It hadn't occurred to me that Heather might be intersex, (instead? in additon?) but now that you point that possibility out, it does fit what I remember from earlier. Thanks!
My failure either to notice or to remember that detail tells me that my biases may be influencing this, but I think it strongly suggests that the reason she's not looking for a long-term romance is probably nothing to do with squishy sexual stuff.
There are a few things that extend far outside the "queer topics" cluster (though they also overlap a lot) which I'd be delightfully surprised to see brought up and discussed in the comic in some way or other, and Heather looks to be a candidate for some. Her place in the comic so far leaves room for the possibility of her not being drawn by ...queer gravity, I guess you might call it.
No formal training. I've taken some creative writing classes, but I found creativity to be quite frowned upon in such settings. Most of my "training" comes from simply reading/watching/playing anything that contained a layered story. My appreciation for stories that subtly foreshadow way ahead of time and still surprise, and ones that develop characters with a lot of layers is itself my biggest inspiration for wanting to write stories like that.
I don't know if that counts as talent, but I really didn't have any useful training professionally.
Well, either by luck or intention it was subtle and done well enough that those without training might not pick up on it, congrats. ^_^ Excellent work.
As a fellow writer and literary researcher I have a better grasp of things like this than most.
Writing aside, that grasp tends to make me enjoy older movies more than newer ones due to actors actually acting and not just green screening. It may not be seen by some but when you see the minuscule emotions and actions on an actor's face and body when they actually feel the weight of a gun or see something bizarre and/or terrifying it improves the story (IMO). Modern acting is mostly CGI and this, I feel, takes away from the stories. This same subtly can be found in writing, especially in visual writings, such as comics.
Finally, as a long time fan of your work, and not just because of the issues written about, I say "Keep up the Good Work." <3
Does its make Gavin chaser, just like Maria joked? Or would he also have to be creepy and obnoxious to qualify.
Now lets see how much theory I made back when they were on a date holds.
- transgendered - check
- bullied for being trans in elementary school - likely
- parents divorced because dad wanted to help her transition, and mom objected - likely
- boyfriend in middle school attacked her for being trans - very likely: In previous comic her dad asked if he [Gavin] "knows", and apologises for bringing that up - if thats no a suggestion she told someone before and it ended badly, I don't know what it was.
Everything is proceeding as i have foreseen.
Hey, I know that it's probably not my place, but as a Christian, I just wanted to apologise for all of the suffering that you're going through as a consequence of the horrifyingly bigoted and ignorant views so many of my fellow Christians subscribe to. That said, I know that just saying "Not All Christians Are Like That" doesn't do much in & of itself to help your situation, and those like you (although I hope that campaigns like the NALT Project can help in some small way to change our cultures so that someday, the mistreatment of LGBTQ++ peoples will be a thing of the past).
I know from experience that assuming a person's personal religious views--or even those of their parents--match up with those of their school (despite attending a private Anglican high school, and being an Anglican myself, I was still probably in the minority of my year group religiously). However, on the off-chance that you are, I wanted to assure you that there is a great deal of theological and Biblical scholarship supporting assurances of God's love for you; & if you wish, I am happy to help direct you to some examples of it, if you think it might be helpful for you or your parents to read it.
Either way, please feel free to let me know if there is anything at all that I can do as a Christian to help you in your situation--I feel very strongly that, as so much suffering for the LGBTQ++ community is being caused by Christians, it is very much my responsibility as a Christian to do anything I can to help counter these wrongs. The duty of defending and supporting the disenfranchised ought always to fall on the shoulders of those in positions of power, rather than expecting those already suffering to have to fight even more.
(For a disclaimer of privileges, as far as I am aware: I am a mentally-ill [depression & anxiety], pansexual, Pakeha, cisfemale Sunday School teacher in New Zealand. Just in case you wanted to know at all).
Really a shame that everyone's so secretive in school. Turned out one of my best friends back then is gay and i'm sure some more are LGBT too. Oh right, a teacher was gay too.
I just want to say I love how giddy & happy she is the moment he calls. I'm definitely supporting this pair now!
Made somewhat easier by knowing about a real-life girl in much the same situation. Her moms were supportive, thankfully. Being adopted by a lesbian couple was a good thing for her :)
First time she was being vague I thought it was this
We stan supportive parents!! Let's GOOOOOO!!!!!