This was the mistake I personally made when l was....slightly irked by It Was Not. I didn't realize that Bandana was actually going to be around for a while (I figured the "racing to the gate" thing would take maybe 4 strips at most) and it seemed at the time like Bandana was thrown into that scene just to serve as a "token homosexual character" and that irked me. Since then, more time has been spent with Bandana on-screen, if you will, so I now understand that she's a minor character that will be around for a bit longer at least, so the backstory is entirely justified, IMHO.
TL; DR: I misjudged Bandana's relevance initially. But now that I know she's important to the story it's cool.