Almost two years ago author E. Kristin Anderson asked me to write a guest post for her blog for Pride Week. I wrote about the need to reflect today’s world in our LGBTQ YA fiction, while at the same time continuing to write coming out stories relevant to today’s teen readers. Last August I did a post for my own blog in response to a request for recommendations of good YA novels featuring lesbian or bisexual characters, and, again, focused on those books I think still relevant to today’s teen readers. I continue to believe there is a strong need for YA novels with LGBTQ characters at all stages of the questioning, exploring, self-accepting, coming out, and living out spectrum, that also reflect the world our teen readers are living in now.
Books like Adaptation by Malinda Lo, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Ask the Passengers by A.S. King (reviewed here on January 17). Books that recognize how far we have come and how far we still have to go, through the lens of today’s teens.
Books like Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg (Arthur A. Levine Books, June 2013).
Openly Straight feels like it might actually be the next evolutionary step in LGBTQ fiction for teens, with a protagonist who has been out since eighth grade but is now climbing back into the closet for a chance to be himself apart from being “the gay kid.” High-school-junior Rafe has seemingly had the easiest coming out ever. His parents embrace who he is and encourage a healthy exploration of his sexuality. His Boulder, Colorado, community is largely a comfortable place for him to live, with little backlash at school. In fact, what is chafing Rafe is the extent to which his relationship with the world feels filtered through being so wholly identified as gay, despite how often the attention he receives is positive and well meaning. So, he decides to go to an all-male, New England boarding school and start over as Rafe, the not-openly-gay kid.
He rationalizes that he can do so without actually lying if he merely deflects and avoids the direct questions. But despite his plans, he very quickly blows past all his intended ethical and moral lines when he gets a taste of being part of a group of guys — just another (perceived straight) guy at the table or in the locker room — without the barriers he has always felt his sexual identity placed between him and his straight male peers. He wants to “be himself,” to enjoy the moment of fitting in instead of being “special.” But as is clear to the reader, he is not “being himself” because hiding that “one thing” means being dishonest with his friends and himself, and acting the part to fit in begins to eat away at his ability to rationalize his choices and actions. Complications come in the form of challenging friendships and romantic feelings and the real feelings of classmates lurking under the expected surface of tolerance.
What follows is a story that explores identity and honesty and labels, and how we actually shape how the world sees us by what we let the world see. Except unlike so many YA novels, Rafe is very clear about who he loves, he just needs to figure out who he is and how to be his best self.
Openly Straight has humor and heartache while exploring issues of identity from an organic and interesting teen perspective, one firmly rooted in this GSA-PFLAG-Out Athletes world. And Rafe is a fully developed teen male character with wants and needs and a worldview certainly linked to, but not entirely defined by, his sexuality. While a few characters might slide into cliché (ie, the popular jock, the trusty female pal), most of the secondary characters are well developed, interesting, and add dimension to the story. They also serve as foils for Rafe’s attempts to label everyone else, even as he resists being labeled. Through writing assignments, conversations with friends and family, and even through conflict and introspection, Rafe considers relevant and weighty questions like can we exist in a label-free world, when is “being gay” relevant to your life, and just how wide is the chasm between tolerance and acceptance? And perhaps most centrally, can you really be yourself while hiding who you are?
Aside from issues of identity, Openly Straight explores how being different can be isolating, even in a seemingly progressive environment. It also offers a terrific exploration of that moment when a teen takes his first steps out of his self-absorbed bubble by recognizing his privileged place in the world, and begins to realize how that privilege effects his choices and how his actions impact others.