This cartoon, published in the Southland Times on 3 September 2008, was a response to media reports about schools not allowing students to bring same-sex partners to their school balls. The image mimics the hand of God in Michelangelo's famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The lightning bolt from the finger separates two female symbols – a lesbian couple. The phrase 'gay abandon' is ambiguous, referring simultaneously to the pressure on gay, lesbian or bisexual students to abandon their same-sex partners, and to the pleasure and abandonment associated with sexual intimacy.

Courtesy of the Southland Times