In 2004 I wrote the first cartoon in my Girl Trouble series mocking the idea of a post-gay identity. I was 16, living in a small town, and had just recently come out. To me, and most of my queer buddies, it seemed that the only way to change the status quo was to fight invisibility--to declare our difference and carve out a space to exist alongside the het world. I could not have conceived of a cultural universe where sexual identity didn't matter. But now, less than five years later, it's apparent that this impossible thing is slowly becoming a reality.

The trouble began when I started trolling around for lesbian websites that might give my comics a link. I took it for granted that there would be plenty. My favorite web hub as a teenager, Technodyke.com, is now defunct, as is the new-ish social networking site OurChart. Lesbian.com and Lesbian.org are relics, last updated years ago. PlanetOut.com is a virtual billboard. Gay.com is a virtual bathhouse for the boys. The last girl standing is AfterEllen.com--a slick and entertaining site, but its celebrity obsessions and up-to-the-minute technoliteracy have a way of making even this 22-year-old dyke feel old.

This void of lesbian-specific webspace made me wonder: Where are lesbians getting their news and entertainment these days? And the answer, of course: The same places everyone else is. On television, on the front page, and on mainstream websites.

As a queer artist of modest talents, I can't help but feel conflicted about all this change. The evolution of a society where sexual orientation affords neither special attention nor censure, is exciting and just--and yes, inevitable. But I have my selfish doubts. Assimilation of lesbian culture puts a lesser-known artist in danger of becoming a small fish in a big melting pot. Gone--or going fast--are the days of the desperate audience, the people who will read something just because it's got lesbian content, and not because it's necessarily any good.

Maybe one day the idea of a lesbian comic will seem as absurdly separatist as those old hippie womyn's communes. And maybe that's a positive step for society. Still, there's nothing wrong with shedding a tear at the huge hole in the lesbian webspace, or getting nostalgic for affirmative action when you're sitting at the bottom of the heap.

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