Editing For Better or For Worse (section)

===Lawrence comes out===
[[File:For Better or Worse coming out panel.PNG|thumb|300px|Panel showing the coming out of Lawrence to his mother]]
[[Michael Boncoeur]], a friend of Johnston's, had been murdered in Toronto in 1991.<ref name=hunt>"Police hunt former CBC comic's killer". ''[[Vancouver Sun]]'', March 27, 1991.</ref> Although the murder was not over Boncoeur's homosexuality, there were some homophobic attitudes seen in the media coverage of it, and Johnston felt that a gay character should be brought into the strip to help combat anti-gay stereotypes and discrimination.<ref name=drawn>Pam Becker, [https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-12-17-0412160371-story.html "Drawing from life"]. ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', December 17, 2004.</ref> 

In April 1993, Lawrence Poirier's [[coming out]] generated controversy, with readers opposed to homosexuality threatening to cancel newspaper subscriptions.<ref>[https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/the-lynn-johnston-interview/ The Lynn Johnston Interview, ''Hogan's Alley'' #1, 1994]</ref> Johnston did receive supportive mail on the issue generally from social workers and politicians, who praised her for portraying it with realism and avoiding vulgarity. Opposed readers who believed that a homosexual character was highly inappropriate for a family-oriented strip wrote Johnston many letters. While few letters were vicious, Johnston did say that many who opposed the story arc did so in a poignant manner. Johnston said one that was particularly hurtful was from a longtime fan who said she felt it was against her conscience to continue reading the strip; the woman's letter did not have any foul remarks, but the envelope contained returned yellowed ''FBoFW'' strips the fan had kept for a long time on her refrigerator.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/arts/life_in_a_comic_strip.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106120730/http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/arts/life_in_a_comic_strip.html |archive-date=2008-01-06 |title=CBC: Life is a comic strip |date=2008-01-06 |access-date=2012-01-19}}</ref> Over 100 newspapers (including New Hampshire's ''[[New Hampshire Union Leader|Union Leader]]'') ran replacement strips during this part of the story or cancelled the comic altogether.<ref name=zuccotom>{{cite news|url=http://www.sptimes.com/News/090401/Floridian/Comic_controversy.shtml|title=Comic controversy|last=Zucco|first=Tom|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|date=2001-09-04|access-date=2007-05-04|quote=}} – [http://www.fborfw.com/features/lawrence/index.php?page=three Johnston's web site] says that about 40 newspapers ran replacement strips.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Heckman|first=Meg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZEHcDwAAQBAJ&q=substitute+content|title=Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and the Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party|date=2020-06-01|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-64012-193-5|language=en|chapter=Chapter 6: A Personal Connection}}</ref> Much more favourable was the article "Coming Out in the Comic Strips", by David Applegate, editor of the [[Comic & Fantasy Art Amateur Press Association]],{{cn|date=March 2024}} which ran in Hogan's Alley No. 1. The following year, Lawrence introduced his boyfriend, giving rise to another, though smaller, uproar.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fborfw.com/strip_fix/friday-june-30-2023/|title=June 30, 2023|date=2023-06-30|access-date=2023-12-21}}</ref>

Explaining her decision to have Lawrence come out as gay, Johnston said that she had found the character, one of Michael's closest friends, gradually "harder and harder to bring... into the picture". Based on the fact the Pattersons were an average family in an average neighbourhood, she felt it only natural to introduce this element in Lawrence's character, and have the characters deal with the situation. After two years of development, Johnston contacted her editor, Lee Salem. Salem advised Johnston to send the strips well ahead of time so that he could review the plot and suggest any necessary changes. So long as there was no overt or licentious material, and Johnston was fully aware of what she was doing, Universal Press would support the action. Johnston's personal reflections on Lawrence, an excerpt from the comic collection ''It's the Thought That Counts...'', are included on the strip's official webpage.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060718101158/http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/lawrence/index.php Official website]</ref>

One result of the storyline was that Johnston was made a jury-selected "nominated finalist" for the [[Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning]] in 1994. The Pulitzer board said the strip "sensitively depicted a youth's disclosure of his homosexuality and its effect on his family and friends."<ref name="pulitzer"/>

The story goes that Connie adopts a dog to deal with her pre-empty-nest syndrome, and as Michael and Lawrence are talking about her desire for grandchildren, Lawrence mentions that he probably will not be giving her any, and then confesses that he's in a relationship, but with another young man. Michael reacts in disbelief to the news and struggles to understand. Realizing that Lawrence is not "hot for him", Michael understands Lawrence sees him as a friend and not a lover. Michael then insists that Lawrence needs to tell his parents. Lawrence himself is unsure of this, claiming that he really ought to see his family's view on homosexuals and that it could be hurtful to them if he comes out, which is not his intent, but Michael retorts, "it'll be a lie if you don't". Hearing the news, Connie reacts with desperate denial, then orders her husband Greg to speak to him. Greg throws Lawrence out of the house, challenging him to see if "his kind" will take care of him the way Connie and Greg have all these years.

In the middle of the night, Elly wakens Michael and tells him to find Lawrence (as he was the primary instigator). Connie and Greg fought for hours over Greg's banishment of Lawrence, and now Connie simply wants Lawrence back. Michael locates his friend at a donut shop, where they talk until dawn, and Lawrence ultimately returns home, welcomed by Connie and an apologetic Greg, who tells Lawrence that he accepts him as long as his son endeavours to be a good man, and address life afterward with "Que Sera Sera". From this, Connie decides to name the new dog "Sera". Johnston had originally stated she was going to address the issue once then leave it alone; however, she eventually wrote future story arcs about Lawrence's homosexuality.

In 2001, when Michael chose Lawrence to be best man at his wedding to Deanna, Johnston ran two sets of comic strips. In the primary storyline, Deanna's mother Mira Sobinski objects to having a gay man in the wedding party, while in the alternate storyline, which used the same art but modified the dialogue, she instead objects to the flowers that Lawrence, by this time a professional [[landscape architect]], has given Michael and Deanna to decorate the church. The alternate storyline was for newspapers who had not originally published the 1993 debut of Lawrence's homosexuality.<ref name=zuccotom />

In 2007 when she was asked about why she did the storyline, Johnston said,

{{quote|Because it was such a good story. For me Lawrence had always been particularly [long pause] I don't know: gentle, unique, sensitive. It just seemed right – he just always appeared that way to me. Plus, I've had a number of friends who were gay, and what made me decide to do this story was that one of them [Michael Boncoeur] was murdered. Michael was a wonderful comedy writer for the CBC, and I had known him since we were in about Grade 8, and when Michael was murdered the authorities in Toronto reacted to it in a very cavalier manner – like "Well, that's one more of them off the streets." In the end, the young man who took a knife to him [following a scuffle over his bicycle] was ultimately seen as the victim.

His death really prompted that story, because I wanted people to know that this young man, that you've grown up with for so many years, is still the same person. Just because his sexual orientation is suddenly different, he's still the young man who helped you in the garden, helped carry your groceries and sat with you when you cried at school.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/johnston.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315090158/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/johnston.html | archive-date=2011-03-15 | work=CBC News | title=Family affair | url-status=dead}}</ref>}}