Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Snopes, trans

Snopes Confirms It's Not $32,000, It Wasn't USAID & Not A Trans Comic

Snopes confirms that it wasn't $32,000, it wasn't from USAID and, of course, it's not a trans comic either

Recently, Bleeding Cool looked at the USA White House's alleged wasteful spending by the US government agency USAID, with the White House Press Secretary saying, "$32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru. I don't know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don't want my dollars going towards this crap…" Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast, the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee  referenced a"transgender comic book" on the Fox Business Network TV show Kudlow on the 22nd of January and then in a Daily Mail article on the 28th of January, saying "And I heard it's reasonably risqué" and referred to it as"an LGBTQ trans comic book" on the Sunday morning CBS News TV show Face the Nation on the 2nd of February.,  White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the comments above in front of cameras and reporters outside the White House, a video of which was then promoted by Elon Musk on X.

Bleeding Cool tracked down the comic book created by the LA-based Glass House Graphics team founded by David Campiti, which specialises in representing  South American and Filipino artists.

The comic, called The Power Of Education, or El Poder De la Educacion, has three issues published. The first two were written by David Lawrence, who is Head Of Acquisitions for Glass House Distribution in Los Angeles. And noted that issue 2, which does feature a gay character, was written by US screenwriter Dave Lawrence and drawn by Cyber Force's Bruno Abdias, and it won the Palanca Award for best illustration of the year from the Ministry of Culture of Peru.

After our article, Snopes dug in further. First, stating that the money came from the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic and Consular Programs, not USAID, and a $32,000 grant covering 2022 and 2023 that helped publish the second and third issues. courtesy of the U.S. Embassy and a student cultural exchange program between the U.S. and Peru. Also, while #2 had a gay protagonist named Alex, no transgender characters appeared in any of the comics. They describe the second issue as follows: "Alex, a superhero, helps calm people following an earthquake, spends time with his family, and saves a bullied boy from ending his own life. On the very last page with dialogue, following other pages containing hints about his gender identity, Alex reveals to his mother and father that he is gay and introduces them to his boyfriend, Emiliano. Alex's father accepts the news and hugs Emiliano. His mother tells him, "Alex, this is hard for me. This is not the world I grew up in. But I love you. And I will try." The cover of the issue displays a drawing of people in a parade holding rainbow-colored flags, or pride flags."

David Lawrence states, "This is the so-called "$32,000 transgender comic book." As mentioned earlier, the cost is off by a factor of four. I can only guess that's the cost of 4 books, though only 3 were done. If you think educational comics are a waste that's fine, though the US government has done things like this since at least WW2. The protagonist is gay, not trans. It's far from the best story I've ever written but it has some nice moments. The US embassy in Peru requested that as a small response to anti gay prejudice in the country. I don't even think the administration and its acolytes are deliberately lying. I think they're too lazy to look and don't care. I might regret this when the MAGA find it, but I'm making this public in case anyone wishes to share" and adding "The content is so mild it's G-rated. The hero was afraid to introduce his boyfriend to his mother. There are no transgender characters. Period. If you think that even depicting a gay character is wrong, say that. But don't toss around 'trans' just because it's the popular target group of the day."

The comic can be read here. David Campiti posted, "Each year for the past three years, Glass House Graphics has packaged/produced 'THE POWER OF EDUCATION' comic book for the American Embassy in Peru, tied to a scholarship program. We began work on #4 on Wednesday. Today the Trump administration cancelled the program because it is too 'woke.' 'In accordance with our new policies,' their notice stated, 'all programs have been paused, and future activities will need to align with the updated priorities.'"

Dave Campiti then told Snopes, "If they're going to lie about something this small, this simple, a comic promoting an educational program that happened to have a gay character in it because the embassy asked us to include one, because they wanted to show the drama of this kid coming out to his family, if they're going to lie about that and say it was a transgender thing so it had to be quashed, and it was really about an educational program to help children, to help students, then, I don't know what to say about it. That's just an awful thing that they would turn something meant to help people into something that they were trying to frame as awful."

The question must be, if this story wasn't true, what about the rest of them?

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