In 2003, while the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was deciding the fate of same-sex marriage, Telnaes created an editorial cartoon criticizing the historical imbalance of gender roles in the United States by which "the traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman has resulted in second class citizenship for many people in America for a long time".

Telnaes defended her cartoon by tweeting, "Ted Cruz has put his children in a political ad—don't start screaming when editorial cartoonists draw them as well.

"[11] In early January 2025, Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post after her cartoon lampooning powerful media and technology billionaires and a corporation mascot performing obeisance before president-elect Donald Trump was rejected by opinions editor David Shipley.

Included in the sketch were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Post owner Jeff Bezos, Meta/Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg offering bags of money, Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and a prostrate Disney mascot Mickey Mouse (representing Disney subsidiary ABC News).

[12][13][14] Mr. Shipley stated that his editorial decision was based on the piece's redundancy with other content that had recently been published by or been approved for publication in the Post.