In an effort to build a space for queer people like myself, every Tuesday I’ll be posting opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community (and occasionally about the Latinx/WOC community since I am Latinx.) Welcome to Queerly Not Straight! Enjoy and leave a comment below if you have a suggestion for what I should cover next.
It’s not often that a book makes me cry. In fact, the last time I cried while reading a book was during Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry heard his mother’s voice while fighting a boggart. See, feels. Even now, years after, I’m torn up by it. And now, The GayBCs by M.L. Webb joins HP in a coveted spot in the ‘made me cry’ category of life. The reasons why are vastly different though.
The GayBCs made me cry because this is the kind of book I would’ve loved to have as a child. The world is already confusing as heck when you’re a kid, throw in puberty and questions about sexuality and gender in a home that punishes or looks down upon such concepts and you’ve got a recipe for a youth that is confused about who she is. A book like The GayBCs could’ve helped with that confusion as a child.
The GayBCs made me cry because this is the now for the next queer generation. This book is part of a normalization when it comes to anything and everything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. And the children of today will grow up with books like this readily available to them whenever they feel that confusion that I felt growing up with no knowledge of what being gay meant or how others could be an ally to everything I was going through.
The GayBCs made me cry because it’s creators actually took the time to make sure this book was woke af. Most books like this fail and end up being the worst kind of fake woke. But with The GayBCs you can tell that care and patience were the name of the game in making sure they created a book that was welcoming and unapologetically inclusive to everyone that falls under the LGBTQ umbrella.
The GayBCs made me cry because now I get to live in a word where a book like this exists. Yeah, it would’ve helped child me to figure out the complex feelings I was working through when it came to my sexuality and orientation. But I’ve still got growing to do and it’s never to late to take the lessons given and build something amazing from it. That’s why this review has been written and why I can’t wait for others to experience what I have with The GayBCs.
The GayBCs is available to purchase now.
Queerly Not Straight posts every Tuesday with opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community (and occasionally about the Latinx community since I am Latinx.)
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