Text of this protest art:

I Stand with my Immigrant, Queer, Brown and Black Americans, undocumented, citizen, native.

With apologies to Mr McFloofypants, from whom I swiped the idea of using feline stand-ins.

Like so many USians, I have been absolutely horrified by the fascistic invasion of the Twin Cities by the undisciplined, lawless and deeply cruel ICE; I just had no idea how to cope (besides watching a lot of cleaning videos by a creator who focuses on being kind to his [often] mentally ill clients) and, to be honest, way too much instagram, where ElsieWants—Mary Robinette Kowal's button using cat's channel—mentions fellow creator Mr McFloofypants as an example of pushing back on complaints on ‘you're a comforting cat channel, keep politics out please’.

Instead, Mary Robinette Kowal republished Mr McFloofypants’ protest art...featuring cats. (One cogent comment I saw was, ‘if you're seeing a lot of overtly political content on seemingly apolitical channels, that's probably a sign that things are getting bad, and you should pay attention.’ Amen.) I had already seen suggestions to make art in support of the folks in Minnesota and especially the Twin Cities area as a way to help, a way I could help...but I had no ideas. Then I saw Mr McFloofypants’ art, and thought, I don't think Mr McFloof would mind if I redrew her work, since the point of this kind of art is not credit so much as getting out the message, and of course I would've credited the original creator. (With apologies, her work is so much cleaner...)

But the dam had broken and with only a little effort I came up with a slightly different idea of showing support, particularly for the marginalized communities under siege in the US—immigrants (of any, heh, stripe), LGBTIAQ+/queer, and Brown and Black people of colour. Brown and black cats are super common and obvious, of course:) I thought an odd-eyed persian would represent the queer community in general, and trans folk and drag queens in particular, given that the latter would actively enjoy the long fur & accessories^[1] and then, figured a Siamese cat would register as a foreigner (another choice might have been the Japanese Bobtail, but I feel they're not as recognizable).

White people, as I've mentioned ad nauseum are actually (a tint of) orange, and as it happens orange tabbies are 70% male, so a dilute orange tabby is a subtle way implying that the central character is absolutely at the top of US hierarchy—White, and male.

Not that I'm trying to be at all subtle with the message, here.

I don't know that my tiny effort does diddily squat, but at least I feel a bit better.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn