Boy Meets Boy

I just finished the book Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan and thought it was a pretty good book. It kept my attention throughout and it made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen next. It dealt with many different gay and lesbian issues ranging from coming out to not having accepting parents. The second chapter of the book beginning on page 8, caught me off guard a bit. “I’ve always known I was gay, but it wasn’t confirmed until I was in kindergarten. It was my teacher who said so. It was right there on my kindergarten report card: PAUL IS DEFINITALY GAY AND HAS VERY GOOD SENSE OF SELF” (8). This seemed to me as unrealistic. There is no kindergarten teacher that would tell parents that their child is gay. Throughout the book it made notes that Paul was very accepted in his school and so were the other boys who were gay. Paul was elected to run a school dance and had a very large committee consisting of gay and straight children. The dance also was in memory of a lady who used to be a swinger in her day, and this was known throughout the school. During the dance a senior boy had to dance with a portrait of this lady. This is something that would probably never happen in any type of school. To me, that seems very strange and not something I would want to see at any kind of dance I would attend.
While reading the book, which I did enjoy, I thought it seemed very unrealistic. Thinking back to when I was in High School and Middle School being gay or lesbian was not “as” accepted as it is in this book. I think this could definitely give children misconceptions about coming out thinking that they will be treated no different. As sad as it is young children are treated differently and are not always elected as class president etc. I think this book is great I guess “wishful thinking” about everyone getting along and being treated equally. Infinite Darlene, the homecoming queen and start quarterback also seems like a highly fictional character. If a child went from being a guy and a star quarterback, to a girl it is highly unlikely that “she” would become homecoming queen. If that happened in today’s times there would be a great deal of talk and children would not be accepting of this. Again, it’s horrible that we can not all be accepting of such things, but it is something that students are not used to and have a hard time dealing with. Again, I think the book deals with GLBT issues in a very bright light and makes having gay relationships accepted by everyone. Another thing I found interesting is that Chuck tried to ask Infinite Darlene out. Chuck, knowing that she used to be a guy was still interested in her. Again, this is not something that would normally happen. In a perfect world maybe yes, but in today’s times, it’s very unlikely. All in all this was a good book and I did enjoy it, however I found it very unrealistic therefore making me question the whole issue at hand.