I know what it's like to be gawked at.  Jeered at.  Made to feel small, like some piece of entertainment in someone else's day.  Laughed at by whole groups of folks on the train because I didn't dress, talk, or act like they did.  In a store.  In my place of employment.  Going shopping..just as these people I've drawn are.  I notice in some of them a quiet dignity--even a defiance, because some of them must surely know on one level or another what's going on.  I'd like to think I'm giving some of them back a modicum of that same dignity that was robbed the second these photographs were featured on someone else's website, complete with disrespectful captions.

A personal thank you to everyone in my life that was small-minded, ignorant and loud in my general direction.  You've helped to sharpen my sense of right and wrong in a way that no one else could have.