Several years ago, I started working at another library system in my college town. I was hired as the Young Adult Coordinator and I was only 19 years old…barely older than some of my teens. I sucked. Pretty bad. I was trying and I didn’t try to get to know any of the books. Until one day, my boss, whom I admire more than he’ll ever know and care about so much (he’s now one of my closest friends), suggested that I read Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. 
I grew up in a community that was ‘sheltered’ per say but definitely everyone had their own opinion about everything. And it was highly religious. Like a big Southern Baptist ant farm. I had been involved in a lot of community theater so homosexuality wasn’t something I was unfamiliar with but I just had a few gay guy friends and I didn’t worry too much about their lives.
I am grateful for this book because it made me shake my views of homosexuality. Before, I didn’t really care about my gay friends and about their struggles and I rarely even saw them outside of the theater where they were largely accepted. Instead, it opened my eyes to a new community where gay people were…SHOCKER…just people. They went through the same things that I did as a straight girl and then again, they went through a lot of hell to be the person they were. Some endured too much. Others didn’t have a problem. But by and large, this book taught me that tolerance isn’t really enough. It taught me about acceptance and about welcoming everyone in my life on equal levels.
I admit, I still sometimes use the word ‘gay’ in the wrong and offensive way. I’m trying really hard to change that. I even have queer members of my own family. But I am still, years later, shaping my views in a way that I will be able to teach my son about the world and make him appreciate everyone for who they are and for their awesomeness, not predisposed notions of a person based on their sex or choices of mates.
Thanks, Beth Revis, for giving me an opportunity to speak a little about my book.
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