This Book is Gay

“So, think of this as a handy guidebook. Take in what it has to say. See what it helps you figure out. Then close it, and experience. I promise: There’s a lot to experience.”

Both Juno Dawson and Levithan (the Introduction’s author) acknowledge that This Book Is Gay is just a guidebook. While useful, it can only give “clues” that readers need to follow out into the real world. Dawson is aware of the genre she is writing in and does not try to do more than a guidebook is able to do. Levithan points the reader toward experiencing the world if they want to learn more.

“Whether I liked it or not, I fancied guys, but I could have so easily lied and pretended to like girls. I could have married a girl like Kelly and been utterly miserable, but instead I accepted my identity and did something about it.”

Doing “something about it” is where pride in identity and community comes from. Dawson locates pride and identity in the same action of choosing to do something about one’s feelings.

“Advertisers would like us to believe that being female somehow feels different to being male, but we will never really know. Culture tells our parents how to dress us as kids, and it becomes ingrained. It sometimes seems bonkers to me to think that a dude would have to be ‘trans’ to put on a skirt or some heels.”

Dawson believes clothing, like labels, is fluid. What matters in both cases is if a person feels comfortable in their labels or clothing. This is an instance of the institutional anti-LGBTQ+ biases that Dawson defines in Chapter 5.