Lawrence's Story

For Better or For Worse® has always been a sort of real-life chronicle, a look into the workings of a family and a neighbourhood—an average neighbourhood that could be in any town, anywhere.

Serious Subject Matter

Although Lynn has tended to focus on the lighter side, it has been important for her to explore those things in life that are not necessarily laughable; things that pose a challenge, things that must be dealt with seriously and worked through.

If the Pattersons were an average family in an average neighbourhood, they would be aware of the diversity in the people around them and would have to accept and try to understand those differences.

Lynn felt that she was being true to life and true to her work if she gave Lawrence the courage to tell Michael he was gay. Lynn wanted to challenge herself to see if she could broach a sensitive subject and write it into the strip with care and compassion. Lynn managed to do this successfully while, at the same time, including a bit of laughter, too.

Support From Her Syndicate

Much thought went into this story. Lynn must have had it in mind for two years or more before she wrote the series. Lynn told her editor, Lee Salem, what she was planning to do. Lee suggested that Lynn send him her rough work well in advance of the publication date so that he could see what elements were involved and make deletions, if necessary. Lynn wrote and sent in the material eight weeks before her deadline. Although Lee cautioned Lynn that it was a sensitive issue and there could be some negative response, he felt that Lynn had written the story well, that it contained no offensive material, and, that if she wished to run it, he, along with Universal Press, would be supportive.

Submitting the Strip to the Papers

The four-week series was put into production. Along with the "slicks" (the camera-ready art), Lee included a letter to the newspaper editors suggesting that they read the story before pasting up their comic pages. If they felt they would prefer to run alternate material, a set of previously run strips had been selected to fill that space.

Within a few days of receiving the package, forty newspapers declined the series and asked for the alternate strips. Many, however, for one reason or another, never read the accompanying letter (or the strips). They were taken by complete surprise when the story appeared on their comic page and their phones began to ring!

Lee had warned Lynn that there could be some concern—but neither Lynn nor the syndicate was prepared for the overwhelming event that followed.

The Backlash Begins

As soon as the first panel ran, both the syndicate and the newspapers were swamped with phone calls. Some installed new systems just to handle the volume. Faxes and letters began to arrive: letters to editors, to Universal Press Syndicate, to Lynn. A spontaneous, emotional outpouring of opinion flooded into the system and became one of the most impressive and intense reactions on record to a comic strip story. A young man admitted to his friend that he was gay and a Pandora's box was opened wide. Lynn and the syndicate were shaken by the reaction.

A Major Controversy

Within one week of publication, nineteen papers had cancelled For Better or For Worse® outright. Editors who decided to run the series were attacked for having the gall to do so. Those who chose not to run it were accused of "censorship." Editors and publishers were damned if they did and damned if they didn't. They called the syndicate. Editors at Universal Press worked overtime defusing the anger, answering questions, calming and reassuring the newspaper editors who were being harassed, threatened and picketed. They were in the eye of a storm that was generated by ignorance. Those editors who wished to confront Lynn personally were given her direct phone number. Her phone rang constantly from 7 am to 10 pm every day. She answered all of the calls. She spoke with everyone who needed to know why she had chosen to write this story, what she was trying to achieve, and whether or not she was aware of the impact the story was having.

The Conflict Continued...

At first, it seemed as though the responses were mostly negative. The first letters to arrive appeared to have been written in haste and rage. They accused, threatened, cursed, and damned. Many, quoting elaborate passages from the Bible, included threatening and unprintable messages. "Curious thing," Lynn thought to herself, "that these people felt they were worthy to sit in judgment of others." Some letters came as organized protests (many from people who, you could tell, had never read For Better or For Worse®). Some came from people who had been violated as children and equated homosexuality with pedophiles and thought Lynn was in support of something that had destroyed their lives. The opposing points of view were varied, definite and strong.

Editors, particularly from smaller communities, were in a most uncomfortable position. In rural areas, where everybody knows everyone else, they were singled out, their children were harassed at school. One editor confessed to Lynn that his brother was gay. He was 100 percent supportive, but if anyone in his area knew that he was in favor of running the story, he would lose his job.

The "No" Mail

It was mostly from the United States that the sound was heard. Canadian papers carried the pro and con letters on the editorial pages. By and large, it was a southern and very religious population that responded first and loudest and with a clenched, unyielding fist.

It was upsetting. When 1,000 people organized to cancel their subscriptions to a Memphis paper, one editor's bitterness came through loud and clear. She suggested that Lynn had no right to "do this" to people, this subject was best left alone. One of the first letters that Lynn received was also one that she recalls as hurting the most. It was from a woman who said she had loved Lynn's work for years but For Better or For Worse® was no longer welcome in her home. She enclosed roughly a dozen yellowed strips that had been on her refrigerator for years. This made Lynn cry.

Lynn and her staff called all of the negative mail they received the "no" mail.

The "Yes" Mail

The people who decided to follow the story awhile before voicing an opinion began to respond a little later. By the time the second week of the story was under way, the positive side came forward. The phones and faxes continued to ring, but this time, the mail was an overwhelming positive, "Yes!"

The "yes" mail came from doctors, teachers, mental health professionals, clergy, social workers, friends and families of those about whom the story was written.

It took awhile for gay and lesbian readers to respond. It was as if they were waiting to see if the story Lynn told was true to life or whether it was another attempt by someone from the outside patronizing and sensationalizing in order to gain publicity.

Heartfelt Responses from the Gay Community

The letters that came from these men and women were direct, honest and amazingly personal. "I don't know when I have been so moved," Lynn recalls. It is not possible to imagine how painful it is to be persecuted and reviled because you are different, unless you have experienced it personally. These letters were evidence of that.

As the mail arrived, Lynn and her assistant sorted the letters into boxes marked "Yes," "No" and "Articles" (they received many, many newspaper clippings!). Altogether, over 2,500 personal letters were counted, and, of these responses, over 70 percent were positive.

All of these letters were answered. All of them were read with respect and interest.

After carefully storing these "boxes of emotion" for a number of years, Lynn turned them over to the sociology department of her local university, where they are proving to be an intimate and invaluable insight into this side of our human nature.