Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son

Real mixed bag here. I like the idea of this book and I like a lot of what he says.

But I hate the tone. It's written in the second person, a letter to his son. And it feels so condescending! Some stranger lecturing me on how I should live my gay life. If I read it as him advising his own son on being gay then it's fine. But when he says "you should do X, you are Y" it's very hard not to feel like he's talking to me. And that's off-putting. I don't mind a little advice but this is laid on very thick!

The part I like best is his fairly radical queer comments. His encouragement to embrace our differences as gay people. Our unique contributions to culture. I also like the suggestion that maybe being gay is inborn, maybe it's learned, but either way it doesn't matter and if being gay is a choice he would proudly choose to be gay. His comments about the legacy of the AIDS crisis for people our age also struck home.

I could imagine this book being useful to someone young or new to being gay. It is all well meaning, mostly good advice, and an interesting perspective.