It's been over a week, in strip time, since Jamie spilled the beans. These two are overdue for a conversation.

It's a contentious issue in queer circles - what responsibility, if any, does a person have to come out of their particular closet? It's an especially thorny issue when you get into the less common sexual minorities - do asexuals, for example, have to come out, particularly if they expect their friends or family to perceive their orientation as indistinguishable from simply having a low libido? Do you have a responsibility to your fellow sexual minorities to be out and proud, to be visible, to represent? I know I wouldn't be particularly comfortable with the idea that my day-to-day conduct was being taken as representative of all cartoonists, or all dudes with shaved heads.

And of course, some minorities are more visible than others, some minorities have better public images than others, some minorities have more hurdles to jump than others. Coming out as an atheist is a very different circumstance from coming out transgender, which is very different from coming out as being in an open relationship, which is very different from coming out as having depression.

And it isn't just a one-time thing, either. Unless you're a celebrity, you can't just send out a press release saying "BTW, I'm gay" and be done with it. I have a friend who happens to be one of the aforementioned minorities, and it's been incredible to me, even from the outside, seeing how long and laborious and stressful the process of her coming out has been. She's still not done with it - I'm not sure if she ever will be completely done with it.

And, yes, I'll mention it again, Carol and Cheryl are the same height. Carol's in heels.