In your face: Stories from the lives of queer youth

In your face:  Stories from the lives of queer youth, by Mary L. Gray

ISBN: 9781560238874

New York:  Harrington Park Press,1999

Arrangement of the book, and contents - In Your Face traces the experiences of 15 teens between the ages of 14 and 19 as they recount events and feelings in response to author Mary L. Gray's probing but gentle questions.  Each chapter presents any number of the total group who answered the question, and chapters are named by the question or topic addressed within.  Chapter 5, "Condemned or Redeemed?  What does Your God Think of All This?" contains only eight responses, ranging from hurt to defiant to celebretory, where all 15 young people's responses are included in Chapter 2, "One of These Kids Is Not Like the Other," remembrances of coming out to themselves.  Gray put together in this volume something that had not been done before at the time of its publication--a collection of meditations given by young people themselves about their experiences of being gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual.  She did this, she writes, because not only do these individuals suffer from the abuse and ridicule stemming from homophobia; as teenagers, they also experience "ageism," a perspective held by the adults around them that young people's expression of who they are is unreliable because they have not matured, according to the author.

Critical Evaluation -Mary L. Gray's respect for each individual young person whom she worked with, and all the expressions included in the book obviously runs deep; it permeates the topics and questions she poses to the teens as well as her own comments.  Her tone in the Introduction, "Why Do We Need Books Like This?" is caring, thoughtful, and ultimately hopeful.  She never slips into defensiveness or alarm as adult advocates of young people do occationally, yet she addresses the serious implications of ignoring these teens' needs head-on.  Further, her writing is well-crafted and reflects a grounding in research that came before her study.  The greatest evidence of her commitment to the cause of supporting LGBTQ youth is the bulk of the book itself--their stories told in their own words. 

Reader's annotation - Tune in to listen to kids' own truth about living in today's world while negotiating their own identities as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning the whole process.

Information about the author - Mary L. Gray is Associate Professor of Communication and Culture at Indiana University at Bloomington.  She specializes in LGBTQ research and writing especially regarding young people, but, surprisingly, she has issues with the whole It Gets Better campaign begun by Dan Savage.  According to her blog, "Queer Country," the language and material of which is actually best suited for adults, she resists the "just persevere" message behind It Gets Better.  In an post titled, "It doesn't get better for anyone if we don't make it better for everyone," she argues that the problem with just hanging on until adulthood brings relief is that nothing gets done to change the suffering for the kids who come after.  She calls for deep examination and change of our culture's systemic rejection of, in her words, queer life over a "just wait it out" approach.
Genre - LGBTQ non-fiction
Curriculum Ties - Sociology, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Booktalk ideas - 

1. Read Eileene Coscolluela's entry on p.106 beginning with, "I used to be very homophobic...".  Stop after the first paragraph and invite readers to check out her coming to accept herself.
2. Ask listeners if they have ideas about how kids get to know each other as lesbian, gay, or bi when the community they live in is dead set against allowing them to live openly.  "Did anyone mention haircuts?!"  Then, with a light tone, read Mary Toth's humorous pgh. (p. 41) about her new k.d. lang haircut.

Reading level -YA to adult

Challenge issues - Certainly the whole suite of challenges based on the book's presenting young people's LGBTQ stories as legitimate experiences, as well as its strident support for their freedom to live and speak out about who they are.

Challenge defense ideas:

• Librarian must read the book carefully and include it as a resource intended for older teens.
• Librarian greets students and regularly discusses their reading choices; she provides individualized, age-appropriate guidance in book choice.
• Explain the ways in which the librarian accompanies and guides younger students looking for books, and knows students well as individuals.

Why I included this book -Highly recommended by Booklist, the reviewer comments that In Your Face "reads like a spontaneously intimate conversation with new acquaintances in which inhibitions dissolve and truth, sometimes surprising but seldom threatening, emerges as both universal and new."  I utterly agree.  The passages were obviously included because of their importance to the young people themselves, not for the author's agenda.  This book's other prime merit is that although it contains roughly 120 entries, they come from only 15 voices.  Consequently, we as readers get to know the contributors over the course of the book in much the same way a work of fiction might communicate character through dialogue.  We not only hear the issues, we become intimately acquainted with and care for the people telling us their stories.