Oddly Normal Book Review

For this assignment, I read "Oddly Normal." I had a few disruptions.  Joseph had a learning disability that was largely linked with his emotions.  Several times throughout the book, I was wondering which of his struggles came from the learning disability and which came from his experience as a gay young man.  In actuality, that is really a bad way to look at all of that because this was HIS experience.  No one child is going to experience coming out the same way and no one is going to experience it in an isolated way.  There will always be factors that affect it and I cannot discredit my student's experience and attribute their pain to something else just because I don't understand them and want to stay in my comfort zone.  Also when the author discussed Prop 8, he was very much against opposing the law on a religious basis because there is no evidence to suggest that children raised by same-gender parents turn out worse or that same-sex marriage harms the institution of marriage.  As a member of a church that opposes same-sex marriage, this definitely caused a disruption.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realize that I oppose it because of eternal things that no one would really understand unless they understood how our doctrine of eternal families worked and I'm not sure even we understand all of it.  So how can I expect someone who does not believe as I do to agree with me?  So I became more content with that disruption.  I'm aware I will run into it again, I understand where they are coming from and I am OK with that.  In class, we talked about the spectrum of views of the LGBTQ community from hostile to advocate.  I feel like this book gives examples for every stage of this spectrum.   The principle of the middle school demonstrates tolerance.  He says he is willing to help but gets serious when Jeanne jokes that she wants to make Joseph a shirt that says "gay" to make things easier and he tells her that's not allowed.  On the other hand, the parents are definitely advocates, even though they don't always know what they are doing.  I don't have to wait to understand everything before I help.  This book will help me with students in the future because I will understand (1) that I need to communicate with parents about their children and, if necessary, help them navigate the school hierarchy to get things done (2) make sure that I find the root of the problem rather than punishing the symptoms and (3) there will be zero tolerance of bullying in my class.  Students have died over such things.