the application requires concepts for your piece(s) and the guidelines say that it has to "relate to being LGBTQ+ in some way" and that ships and headcanons are welcomed

but I can't think of any ways to visually represent queerness and "prove" that a character is queer that aren't either shipping or heavy handed stuff like putting people in pride shirts or Visibly Trans art

I mean pride shirts would probably cute but it's like... my queerness is largely invisible and being queer, for me, isn't something I can show in a one- or two-page spread in a zine

sequential art would be different

but I'm finding myself kind of rankled by what boils down to "you can draw any character(s) as long as you can prove, visually, that they are queer"

and I get that some people probably will like that but it is so far from my experience with queerness and the requirement feels uncomfortable

yeah as a largely femme presenting bisexual person in a "hetero" relationship that makes me uncomfortable lmao

like why not just make it a queer ship zine or something bc all we can really do for a queer zine piece are ships or trans headcanon art which is whatever in the scheme of things but I'm just. not really comfortable with the necessity of the medium to prove and like visually represent a queer experience in one page

this is obviously not about me, but I just mean I'm with you on the "my queerness is not the most visible unless I yell about it"

and SAME LOL like I guess I present kind of andro now but am mostly read as male and am legally in a "het" marriage (or we get mistaken for lesbians) and I don't broadcast my transness even though I don't make a secret of it either

so for me being queer is not... a visible thing? and like real life gaydar aside it smacks of "lol u can tell by looking at these people who is not straight"

and I understand the necessity of it in the zine since if you want it to be a queer-centric zine you want to ensure it's actual queer content but there's no way to draw a character and visually represent that they are queer unless you draw them with a shirt that says "I'M GAY" on it

there's no such thing as a natural visible indicator of queerness lol so it feels really... performative

so again, why not like, a queer ship zine? literally anything other than "ok but people gotta tell they're gay just by looking"

yeah :c

I can think of The Kind Of Person who would be really into that and it's not a demographic I want to hang with so we'll see

I applied with a couple basic-ass concepts because I crave the external validation that zine acceptances provide but I'm also not afraid to drop out if it looks too much like views I don't align with