Participation

I keep coming back to Marten's faces in the last two panels and how much perfection they are.

Readergeek

Most of the characters look like themselves, but Marten looks so *weird* in this new style. I have no idea what it is.

Daryl Sawyer

I love how when Claire's mom gently ribbed her about not being wild enough, Claire doubled down on being not-wild.

Bagge

That's fine, I never said her pushing out of her boundaries had to be about being trans. I simply said something important to her character needs to be about her being trans, and her having panic attacks before she transitioned would be a great thing to use for that.

Diana

Martin's face in the last panel is very well done.

John Ridley

Claire has been making a habit recently of pushing the hell out of her boundaries. This has nothing to do with being trans and a heck of a lot to do with a decision to NOT be ruled by her anxieties. Dating, sex, her job, weed, social interactions- these are all triggers for her. School and the library were her safe places. School is going away, and it's entirely possible she won't get a library job right off the bat. She's realizing that she has to come out of that comfort zone, and this is the next step.

Michele Williams

As a cisgender guy, that particular effect of being trans is not at all something that would have occurred to me. I suppose that suggests it might be useful (at least to me if I were to write things like this) to have transgender advisers that one can ask, "hey, what are some things that happen to my trans character that might not occur to me and could show up in the story." And for other characters that fit categories where representation is important. FWIW, personally I do find that I think of Claire as being transgender about as often as I think of that with my trans friends. Which I note for a datapoint to add to other people's data, not to dismiss theirs! Likewise, Diana, thank you for your datapoint! It's different from many of the datapoints I've heard about representation, which IMO is not at all a controversy; it makes it particularly valuable to give me a more complete picture. Especially since, even if 99% of trans people disagreed with you, having 100 people feel represented is nonetheless better than only having 99 of them feel that way.

Brooks Moses

This _is_ Smif. Not a state college, which has to answer to legislators elsewhere. But, yes, workplaces in the U.S. can generally fire people for anything that's not explicitly protected behavior (such as organizing a labor union) or explicitly protected existence (such as being female). Recreational cannibis use is not a protected behavior, and I also don't believe that refusing to take a random drug test is protected behavior. Ask your lawyer whether cannibis use for medical or religious purposes is protected, but I'd guess their answer will be, "Do you really want to be the test case trying to set judicial precedent for that?"

Brooks Moses

"This is where the night goes from 'we had fun' to 'mistakes were made,' isn't it?" <a href="https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2798" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2798</a>

Elf Sternberg

I sort of feel like Tai wanting to smoke with Claire and her mom is being REALLY pushy into other people's spaces. I would think if they wanted more friends over, they would have said. Also, Tai squeeing and wanting to go smoke with other people while she's at work is getting to be a problematic thing? Her habit of being too stoned to do her job (even tho her job is as support in a library, i.e. not life-risking or anything like that) has been bugging me a bit.

Am Queue

I may be wrong but I'm fairly certain that workplaces are allowed to places exclusions on the behaviour in the contract, even if the behaviour is legal, particularly if the person is in a position of care. Again, I'm not familiar with American law, but this is what I've been led to believe from stories in the workplace.

I think that if there is going to be a controversy about this, it is going to have to be a controversy between transgender women. I don't see how anyone else could possibly have an opinion about what you feel or should feel. It does seem to me, though, that there are two considerations here: 1. What would make Claire a usefully representative trans character. 2. What it would be in character for Claire to do. I'm not at all sure that what resolved Claire's panic attacks, should they have been resolved, was transition. Transition must have reduced general background anxiety and several specific anxieties, but marijuana-induced panic strikes me as just the sort of thing to which someone like Claire would be given. That said, I think you are right, and it is entirely too easy to think of Claire as just another skinny, intense, awkward, nerd girl, with nothing special in her past. Jeph should probably address that. He is likely scared of fucking it up. I certainly would be.

It's the little things - wape with your mom, a terrible but sincerely flattering fanfic, be there when she freaks out in the middle of the night, a lack of pants. Tai is pretty chill

Bagge

Not in a million years. And pot is legal in MA.

KCkittysnores

I'm going to say something that I think is going to be very controversial. While I totally approve of treating Claire just like everyone else and not making a big deal of it, as a transgender woman myself though, I feel like if it's never mentioned nothing about it ever matters then you really didn't make her trans. This would have been a perfect place to include mention here. "If you had panic attacks before, what makes you want to try it again?" "Well that was 'before' and so obviously I'm a lot less anxious now." thus you've given a very believable backstory, given some representation, and a reason for the change of heart, without making some huge deal about it.

Diana

That's the thing about being Tai's friend: You need to do so little to keep her happy with you! I also love how Mrs A doesn't really think that this qualifies as 'something wild'. Don't worry about it, Ma'am. I've got the feeling that Tai will talk an under-the-influence Claire into doing something REALLY wild before the evening is up!

Ben Russell-Gough

Tai? Almost didn't recognize her without her elbow showing...

BobC

Such a bad idea both when she has had a panic attack from it previously and has an exam to do! Why is nobody mentioning this to her?!

Cue randomised drug screening at the university :(

"MARTEN, THERE IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT ABOUT HERMIONE I NEED TO TELL YOU RIGHT NOW!!!"

Bagge

I like that it's also a warning to Marten that the next 1000 messages and calls today might get a little weird.

Andrew

And her mom? :)

Andrew

I bet you anything Clinton will be roped in to babysit Mom&amp;Sis, because that's just how his life works.

Bagge

Marten is going to be the only sober person at this party

MikeT

Narrator: Claire ate too many snacks

Bagge

Oh Tai... 💖 and yay Claire and Mom bonding.

Katrina Urmson

Inb4 Tai steals another of Marten's girlfriends :P

WEED PARTY

JD

Or, to quote Cali Swag District: 'Cause I don't give a f***, blow trees, get money.'

Lucanid Landman

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Populuxe

Partici................pation

ysth

Tai! *squee*

Denise Webber

I LOVE TAI SO MUCH.

Populuxe

Beats me. I didn't have a girlfriend until my Junior year in college.

Churchill (formerly TeaBear)

I only really had the one girlfriend in highschool, so I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that phone call. She shouldn't need his approval, but communication is healthy. How normal would you guys say this sort of behavior is?

Mitchell Sealy

Awesome xD

Kyle Jenkins

Time to queue up some Vengaboys: "We like to party"

Terry Parry

Same. I'd love to get stoned with Claire and her mom.

Mordaeus