Dumbledore, Will Grayson, and the evolution of homosexuality in YA

[Heather]

Today I read this really awesome blog by Gayle Forman about John Green and David Levithan's new book Will Grayson, Will Grayson and what it means for the gay community. It's an excellent and engaging read. Check it out here-- http://www.gayleforman.com/blog/2010/04/20/what-will-grayson-means-... Be aware that this will include minor spoilers for WGWG!

An excerpt:
"Now look, I don’t keep a running tally of every book that has ever hit the NYT list, but based on my informal survey there has never been a
YA book on the list about gay romance where the GAYNESS wasn’t the
point of the story. And, sure, there’s gay romance in WGWG. will
grayson (the depressed will; you know he’s depressed because his
chapters are all in lower case) is gay and (MINOR SPOILAGE) has an
online fling, a romance with Tiny Cooper and yet another budding
romance by book’s end. Tiny Cooper’s myriad romantic entanglements are
on the page here. But you know what? So is Will Grayson’s totally
halting and melty romance with a fabulously sardonic girl named Jane.
It’s all part of the tapestry—gay, straight, whatever."

The article goes on to discuss how supportive the teen community is of the gay rights movement, which is incredible, but I love the point this article makes about a gay romance not going the point of the story--Will Grayson is about friendship, primarily, and the power that our friends have to change our lives for the better. Anything else, like the issues of sexuality, are periphery to all of that.

I think this is absolutely how it should be. I know my gay friends talk all the time about how they don't want their lives to be defined by their sexuality. They are people first and foremost. Sexuality is a part of that, but it is not the defining part of their lives. It reminds me of JK Rowling and Dumbledore. She'd always seen him as gay, but there was so much more to Dumbledore that it didn't even merit inclusion in the books.

I think this is something remember with or LGBT friends or LGBT we encounter in our lives. Remember to look at them as people--what matters to them, what they're interested in, what they act like, how they're doing--instead of as controversies or as a "gay pet," like David's Will Grayson says. We've got to remember to see the whole of a person, not just a little part of what makes them who they are.

[Lucinda]

This is very true. I don't go around and define my straight friends as straight first and everything else second. It doesn't work like that, and so why should other people see me as bi first and everything else second? This is a very good point, and something that people don't often see or realize. I'm sure it's easy to think of others like that, but realizing that you are doing it is the first step to stopping.