Okay, a little history here, if I may. Anyone who knows me or my work knows that (shock! horror!) I'm a gay man who does images with a gay sensibility, but anyone who's seen my work at PoserPros or Planit3D or RDNA knows it's about as offensive as a "Family Circus" cartoon. Heck, when I first joined here, I was accused of being a prude because I took issue with some of the more blatant sexuality going on in the galleries. I generally dont enter the contests here, mostly out of practicality. I dont use the "right" model meshes to get the popular vote, and that's okay with me. But every so often one comes along that looks like it could be fun, and I'll go for it, with absolutely no expectations save to have a good time. I write all this because recently I had an image that was disqualified from the book cover competition because, apparently, same sex imagery, no matter how innocently benign and nonsexual, upsets the moderators of that contest. The image in question was two toon guys in a loose embrace, both fully clothed, both turned toward the camera with small smiles on their faces, for a book called "The Chelsea Boy's Book of Love". Well, apparently, according to messages from one of the contest moderators, this caused no end of discussion because they were concerned that some families looking at it might find it... hmm... difficult. Bear in mind that this thing met all the rules and regulations, as outlined on the contest page. It was classy, clean, took a sense of humour about itself, and, as with all my other work on the sites above, about as offensive as a Family Circus cartoon. But somehow it was "political" and needed to be "modified" (although exactly how was never specified, unless the moderator thought one of the guys should be a girl) and therefore quite possibly "dangerous" because it could be... eww.. icky for some people to look at. Naturally, when I was told of the reason for its possible disqualification, I got a little teed off. It's not the first time I've had to deal with bone headed dufflebags around here, but this one seemed especially ludicrous, in light of the moderator's claims about how entries were to be submitted to the monthly contests. Apparently, when it comes to things like this, positive role models are be shoved into whatever dark corner we can shove them, because they might offend the uber Christian, super moral families whose children will never ever see a gay man in their whole entire lives. So here's the unspoken rule, gang, in case you're considering ever enterring a Renderosity monthly challenge: Make sure it's got a heterosexual in it because gay men, no matter how unthreatening they may be in presentation, scare the horses. Bear in mind that, no, I am not saying we should open the flood gates to any and all imagery. But when one cannot tell the difference between a simple little embrace and a hot monkey session, perhaps one should learn a little more about the world around one.

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider