I read a bit about Guede Nebo, a Voodoo deity who dressed in drag and was a patron to those who died young. This reminded me of an issue surrounding the modern LGBTQ+ movement: drag queen story hour.

I will say this: on the whole, I think the idea that LGBTQ+ is an adult topic, and kids shouldn't hear about it until they're "old enough" is ridiculous and all in people's heads. People tend to associate LGBTQ+ with sex, and it creates a double standard where same-sex couples and trans characters are regarded as sexual even when they wouldn't be if they were an opposite-sex couple or a cis person. I think it's good for kids to learn about different types of people they might meet or even grow up to be, and I fully support age-appropriate LGBTQ+ representation in children's media.

Something like drag queen story hour, however, I see as a gray area. Those events aren't sexually charged, from what I hear, but it's still a little creepy and probably not the best way to teach kids that they're allowed to express themselves however they please regardless of gender. That said, I also don't think it's right to call something like that "indoctrination" or "grooming", because it furthers stigma around an already stigmatized community. I think it's better to say that people who perform events like this most likely have good intentions, but this probably isn't the right way to go about it.

I thought I'd factor my thoughts into my depiction of Guede Nebo. I made him a caring, Mr. Rogers-esque figure who has the ghost children's best interests at heart and, rather than dressing in full drag in front of them, simply dresses how he wants so that they don't have to feel self-conscious about how they express themselves. Smoking a cigar might not set the best example for them, but they're dead anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

I apologize if the ghost children look a little weird. I just figured out how to adjust the opacity on Adobe Illustrator and didn't realize it would make my overlapping more visible. Let's just assume it's ectoplasm.