Once again, Kiki’s comments reveal that she used to be more radical in the past, with this passage suggesting that she at times considered relationships with women but decided not to pursue them because she didn’t want to have to fight the social stigma that came with them. Despite Carlene’s family’s strong conservative political opinions (since particularly in the early 2000s, most conservatives opposed same-sex marriage), Carlene seems surprisingly open to the idea of relationships between women. This raises the question of whether Carlene herself has repressed queer feelings or even if there is a romantic (if unspoken) component to Kiki and Carlene’s relationship.