I can't draw what genuinely hurts me

Faith Randolph

I feel like when people look at me out in public they view me as some sort of stereotype of a rebel who just can’t wait to steal from the next store or do some awful act of sexual deviance. I’m a lesbian, and the returning rhetoric around LGBT folk is that they’re sexual predators or child predators, but that would just hurt too much to draw. It’s horrific to live with and makes me sick to see people in the real world pin that identity on me. I just want to be respected and not have women hide their kids from me on the street and call wherever I am a “dangerous part of town”. I’m tired, my life is falling apart, and I don’t have a positive view of myself or the world at the time of completing this project. I had to make it somewhat silly just to get through it all.