There's been a lot of noise about trans representation and awareness in webcomic circles, along with the typical accusations that certain characters (like Claire from QC or Carla from DoA) are "token". Even if those characters are "token" (which I don't think they are), I really don't have a problem with tokenism. I do try to keep proportions in mind, though, and my cast really isn't that big - shoehorning in a representative of every racial, cultural, religious and sexual minority as though my cast page were Noah's ark would be awkward at best and patronizing at worst. (I've commented before about how a large number of the LS cast have German or British surnames and Protestant upbringings, yes?)

Of course, it's occurred to me that the correct answer to "why aren't there any transgendered characters in your comic?" is "who says there aren't?". Any character in Leftover Soup might possibly be trans, so long as no one's made any sort of canonical reference to their testicles or uterus.

...So Jamie isn't, I guess. And Ellen isn't. And Max is out, obviously. And Nicole's out. And Simon's out. And Gina's out. ...Man, my characters talk about their junk a lot.

Perhaps if there were more trans representation in Leftover Soup, Lily might not be under the impression that transdudeness is essentially characterized by the desire to staple a johnson onto oneself. After all, traditional masculinity isn't necessarily tied to johnsons - a cisgent who misplaces his glans in a deli slicer accident is not compelled to erase the M from his driver's license.

Of course, I've commented before on how Lily and Max are opposite sides of the same coin. They're both body-essentialists, and I think it's obvious that both of them understand that the reason Max wants to play a man has nothing to do with pronouns and everything to do with meat distribution.