This Book Is Gay

    Juno Dawson's This Book Is Gay provides education on gender and sexuality which is sorely missing in sex education conversations. I think it was particularly well done because despite the book being labeled as gay, it did not exclude information about straight or cisgender people. Dawson's audience is young people, most of whom are unsure how they identify or are in the process of learning more about their gender and sexuality. Providing a wide range of information about the different genders and sexualities and including accounts from real people allows her readers to make up their own minds with a good baseline of information. 

    I also really liked Dawson's address to the parents reading this book. She offers advice that showing your child through actions and words that you accept the whole spectrum of gender and sexuality is more effective in creating a safe place for the conversation to occur. And it is so much better than forcing them to come out to you. I also really liked the advice of not forcing any expectations on children because it will help both the child and the parent. There won't be any disappointment of the child not meeting expectations because no matter how strongly a parent feels about how they want their child to be, the child won't meet them. Parents need to realize that children are their own individual persons with their own desires, whatever they might be. By not pushing expectations, for example, crushes or expectations of the future, like "when you get married", children will have the freedom and space to figure all that on their own and have authentic and genuine understandings of how they self-identify. 

    I loved Dawson's continual statement throughout the book that gender and sexuality are not something permanent and can never be changed once decided. By repeating this, she takes the pressure off young people. Just like deciding what career you will have in the future feels daunting, so too does deciding your identity. With that, I like how Dawson also makes it clear that your identity is something very personal to you, that you are the sole determiner of who you are, and that you have the right to be proud. 

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