Introduction

Dear reader,

My name is Drew Linne–known as Drewbirdman on Instagram, and Drewbird on Webtoon (creator of The Spilled Mug). I've been an artist all my life. I grew up with a graphic designer for a father, and spent my after school hours in my mom's ceramics studio.

When I was in middle school, I started to realize that I felt different and out-of-place among the other boys my age. I realized I was gay.

Like most LGBTQ+ individuals, it was a huge struggle for me during adolescence, and I became largely introverted, hoping to be invisible to my peers rather than let anyone know who I was. But I always had art.

I doodled in class constantly, and my drawing skills brought me attention, whether I wanted it or not. Lucky for me, it was always positive attention. Still, I remained the quiet kid who was just really good at drawing, until I came-out at age 17. When I did come-out, I flourished in the community I had found with a handful of other students in my art classes, as well as in my Japanese Language class, where we had all been together since our freshman year.

After high school, I moved out of state to go to art school. I was openly gay from day one, and in my first year I lived on the floor of the dorms designated as the "gender-neutral" floor. There were gay kids, lesbian kids, bi kids, trans kids! And straight allies too! It was the perfect place for me, and I made a close-knit group of friends that year. I had found my people!

Ever since then, my identity as a queer artist has been very important to me. And I love telling queer stories. Both about my personal journey, as well as fiction. And I have always enjoyed creating homoerotic work as
well.

In recent years, I've become increasingly frustrated by the censorship that queer artists face on social media. I've been on Instagram since 2010, and have consistently had my artwork removed for "violating community standards". I have tried doing a Patreon for my erotic work in the past, but I just don't produce enough work to feel justified in asking people to pay money to subscribe to my page. It's just not for me. And recently I tried returning to Tumblr–a place that I really enjoyed from the early to mid '10s–but I have already had my artwork flagged and hidden so many times that I can't even have a custom theme for my blog anymore.

As queer people, our sexuality is such a vital part of our lives. Most of us spend our early years trying to hide it. Some of us end our lives because we are told we shouldn't exist. And it's important that those of us who make it to adulthood revel in our true selves, and celebrate each other for who we are. I am so FUCKING TIRED of feeling like a huge part of myself is being routinely stomped out in the name of so-called "community standards".

Blogger seems to be one of the few places online where I can post the kind of work I really enjoy making, so that's what I will be doing. For fuck's sake, I've been drawing pictures of men with huge dicks since I was 12 years old. Just try and fucking stop me.

Yours Truly,

Drewbird