Exploring Identity Through A Gay Lens

After reading Anne's compelling post on including books that address LGBTQ+ issues, I grabbed a few titles she noted from the Muk library this weekend. I've been reading up a lot this summer on ways to organize books for kids in the classroom library, so on my drive back home from the library, I weighed the pros and cons of designating a category as "LGBTQ+" versus by their primary focus, such as identity or social justice or family relationships, etc.

How fitting, then, that my first book in this sub-genre was Bill Konigsberg's Openly Straight. Rafe, our narrator, has been openly gay since coming out to his almost-too-accepting-to-be-believable parents in eighth grade. Wishing to escape the confines of being seen as 'gay' before anything else, Rafe moves from Colorado to an East Coast all-boys boarding school for his junior year of high school and intends to keep his gayness a secret so he can just fit in and be Rafe instead of Gay Rafe.

Rafe is a witty narrator, and I think my stronger Pre-AP readers will like him. Some of the nuance in language will go unnoticed by the average student, but that's true of many teen novels I've read of late. There's a little too much frank talk of sex for my comfort level, but nothing that surpasses scenes that have squicked me out in several other YA books I've read this summer.  Konigsberg includes a writing journal motif where Rafe's teacher comments on his entries, which I found utterly cringey because the teacher asks questions and critiques Rafe's word choice and style, which seems totally inappropriate for a "just write your thoughts and make something from nothing" journal. Were I not an English teacher, this would fly right over my head, I'm sure.

As Rafe justifies his reasoning for pretending to be straight, first to us the reader and later to his parents and his best friend back home, his conflict echoes my back-and-forth about where gender identity and sexual orientation books fit best in my library. Rafe wants to be recognized as himself first. Do we do kids a disservice by lumping all these books together? Do a few kids NOT select a book they want because of where it's been placed in the library? Definitely fodder for further discussion. No one way is best. Or permanent.

Rafe's attempt to shed the weight of one aspect of himself reflects a struggle so many of us face-- celebrating and taking pride in a critical piece of ourselves when it seems to overshadow the other facets of our identity. At several points in the text, I was reminded of other characters I've met through my summer reading, especially the black characters feeling both singled out and lumped together/stereotyped by their race as they come of age. I also thought of my Nick, who's "the kid in the wheelchair" first to most people outside our closest friends and family.

I'm excited to add to our libraries books that ensure every one of our kids finds characters, settings, and stories they identify with and relate to. Still not sure how I'll organize them all, but it will all sort out.