This Book is Gay

The Introduction to This Book Is Gay is written by David Levithan, an American young adult fiction author. Levithan is a gay man who wishes that he had a book like This Book Is Gay while growing up. He spent a large portion of his life lost and confused about his gay identity despite obvious signs like kissing other boys. He hopes that the book can give younger LGBTQ+ people what he lacked in his own youth.

Chapter 1 introduces readers to the “member’s club,” Juno Dawson’s tongue-in-cheek euphemism for the LGBTQ+ community. Dawson opens this chapter with an illustration of “Le Club Secret” and a line of people waiting to be let in by a tough-looking bouncer (1). This illustration sets the chapter’s light-hearted tone while introducing readers to the frequent use of illustrations throughout the book.

Dawson focuses on the pressures LGBTQ+ people feel to be cisgender and straight. This pressure is reinforced by a general lack of education about LGBTQ+ issues. Dawson presents This Book Is Gay as an instruction manual for LGBTQ+ youth who lack the resources from school and family to learn about LGBTQ+ identities.