You Can't Stop the Beat

I have decided to push the envelope in my life.

I am forcing the gay issue with my family whether they like it or not. And I am pretty sure they don't!

I realized that the past is gone, that my family can no longer hurt me unless I let them now. So I have sent my mother and my grandmother a photo of myself and Monster Squad. I included a brief note on the back of each photo to say who he is and what he means to me.

I am not anticipating any response. And if I do receive a response I am preparing myself for the worst.

However, in my fear of being brave I found a book that really spoke to me. It is by gay icon Harvey Fierstein and it is entitled "The Sissy Duckling"

I was trying to preoccupy myself at work so I did not have to think, so I was weeding the picture books and I stumbled upon this little gem. It really spoke to me. The part about the father trying to force his son to play sports and then the father shaming his son for not being like all the other boy ducks was very emotional for me. I found myself crying in the stacks as I read it. Howver, Elmer (the sissy duck) proves that he is just as valuable as anyone else by saving his father from hunters and nursing him back to health. In the end the book had a very positive message about seeing people for their actions and not for their appearance.

I think that this book is a bit too advanced for the age range it is being printed for, but I think that older kids (aka mature gay men) will really enjoy the moral and message of it.

And another book that really moved me that day was "The Old Lady Who Named Things" This wonderful book is about a woman who has outlived all her friends so she only names things that she believe will outlast her. Her house, her car, her bed, her favourite chair. Until one day a puppy comes to her, she refuses to name it as it could very well not outlast her. And the puppy becomes a regular part of her routine, but not her life, until the puppy goes missing and she decides that she needs to find it and make it a permanent part of her life. A very moving book about how if you keep all the bad stuff out you keep out all the good stuff as well.