Everyone has been so excited about Velma from Scooby-Doo recently coming out as lesbian that people have overlooked another cartoon character with its own coming out story: Squirtle from Pokémon.At least, that’s the joke currently going around queer Twitter.
Twitter user @GoddamnItGavin recently posted an illustration from the 1999 Pokémon-themed children’s book Come Out Squirtle which makes it seem like the water-blasting turtle creature is queer.An iconic piece of literature pic.twitter.com/Cka6ZfVOt7— Gavin (@GoddamnItGavin) September 26, 2022Jacob Thornburg, a book reviewer, mentioned why the book seems queer-coded: “This is the story of Squirtle learning to stop being afraid and come out of his shell.