Mar 30th, 2005
How can you know what you don’t know until you know it?
Today The Independent Gay Writer published a review of Families Like Mine. The comment that most stands out to me in Ronald L. Donaghe’s review is this: “As I read, it became increasingly clear that I knew very little of the real issues that gay families, and especially the children in these families, face.”
I really appreciate Donaghe’s honest disclosure, especially since I’m so accustomed to hearing people dismiss Families Like Mine by saying things along the lines of: “What could you [i.e. straight woman] possibly tell me [i.e. queer person] that I don’t already know [about my big queer world]?”
I can only assume the question is rhetorical because I couldn’t possibly know what one person does or doesn’t already know. What I do know is that most queer people who insist that having gay parents is a “non-issue” retract their assumption after they read my book. But first: they have to be willing to actually read it.