Banned Books, Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan.

 

There are boys lying awake, hating themselves. There are boys screwing for the right reasons and boys screwing for the wrong ones. There are boys enraptured by love that they can’t get their hearts to slow down enough to get some rest, and other boys so damaged by love they can’t stop picking at their pain. There are boys who clutch secrets at night in the same way they clutch denial in the day. There are boys who do not think of themselves at all when they dream. There are boys who will be woken in the night. There are boys who fall asleep with phones to their ears.

I just finished reading Two Boys Kissing few minutes ago, then I went for a cigarette as my mind is sorting out the emotions in my head, I feel angry and satisfyingly proud of the achievements of our community, although on a grand universal scale the war for freedom is still fiercely being fought, in the twenty first century people are still being decapitated or jailed for being gay. I haven’t posted anything on the blog for a while because I had too much on mind and couldn’t focus on anything else, my family just found out that I am gay, they are in denial about it, they’re acting very weird, like they don’t want to lose me for something so sinful and disgusting, so they are holding on, avoiding, moping, they are trying to get closer to me, they ask me about my friends specially my male friends and how I got to know them and stuff, indirectly picking out the-might-be sex friend or boyfriend. I thought of escaping to the one thing I know best which is reading, I thought of The Destiny of Me, by Larry Kramer to make me feel better, a sense of consoling solidarity, to remind myself of who I am, to weep as the main character loses himself in his painful childhood memories, but that play led me to think of a book closer in theme, and closer to my experience and heart, Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan.

Two Boys Kissing tells, simultaneously, the story of eight characters as they come to terms with their sexualities and gender, as they define themselves, as they are defined and challenged by others, eight characters that are although very separate physically, still they connect, in fact essential to each others in ways they don’t yet recognize. The two main characters are the one performing a kiss, a kiss that will set up the Guinness record of the longest kiss, in fact the kiss did happen outside the story of David Levithan in 2013, in the book it is performed by Craig and Harry, former boyfriends, but yet they did it together to show the world that love is equal, that two boys kissing is okay, bu they did it after Tariq, another character in the book, got beaten up in the street by some homophobic group of guys, in fact they did know him only after this incident.

The books takes us into the the lives of five other character, Cooper, Avery, Ryan, Peter and Neil. Cooper is very hard on himself, he is always behind the screen of his laptop, taking refuge in sex gay apps talking to strangers but never meeting any of them, because it is so hard for him to accept that his sexuality is not only virtual, that it extends to his real life, but he had to confront that when his parents find out that he is gay from his online conversations, which came as shock to them specially in the way they found out, Cooper finds himself aimlessly in the street with his beat down self. Avery has pink hair, and Ryan has blue hair, they meet in a gay prom, they danced and exchanged numbers in hope to get catch up; Avery is a boy born in the body of a girl, and he is  undergoing a transition to his real skin, so we get a peak at how it feel to grow up in a different skin, how it is hard to be born in the wrong body, and most of all how hard to find love when you had to explain to people all of this, but Ryan is different, Ryan understands, their relation is so sweet and cute, it makes you want to fall in love. Then there is Peter and Neil, in fact Neil is the character that made me want to read this book all over again, I weirdly relate to him now because I am going through the same thing with my family, his Korean background and my own north African background are both alienated from the other characters, his family and my family are both in denial and avoiding the unpleasant fact of our sexualities, Neil and I both feel lost between acceptance and rejection.

The perspective of the story is the most interesting in the book regarding the style of writing,  the story is told from the view a Greek Chorus of gays who died of AIDS, they are the ones who takes us around and tells us about the characters, they also tell us about the change from their time up to now. They are very important in the book, they had to be present to witness a memorable and challenging event such as two boys setting the world record of the longest kiss, they add the item of nostalgia and wisdom to the book, sometimes you feel like they are directly talk to you which makes it more engaging and emotional. Walt Whitman poetry in the book signifies the change between the two eras, in the old times where they used to read his poetry in their closets, and in nowadays where it is celebrated and read in public.

The eight characters all go through a situation so violent and intense, some of them have a breakdown in their family kitchen asking for recognition , for approval from their parents like Neil, while Cooper got punched by his dad, was called a whole, was denied oblivion. Avery had to deal with people’s stares when he went for girls’  bathroom, and as we learned it is a day-to-day struggle,  Ryan got humiliated by some homophobic peers, almost got beaten up he and Avery.  Tariq was hospitalized after a very violent homophobic attack. Craig and Harry during the kiss endure physical pain, and the outrage of homophobic protesters, and Craig had to deal alone with his parents not supporting him, not coming back to witness and celebrate his accomplishment, in addition to all the memories of his relationship with Harry coming back all at once, like an unfinished business.

Nonetheless, the book also shows the positive side, the solidarity of family, specially moms and the cause the kiss is defending. Family is a central theme in the book, the eight characters come from very different backgrounds, some families like Harry’s are there to support their son with all they could, some of them can’t really stomach it, others slowly start to come to terms with it, and finally  some freak out that their outrage will result them losing their son. The book explore how far can go to harm you and make you feel bad about yourself, but at the same there will be those who lift us up, make us feel better, take our hands the whole way through.

Two Boys Kissing has been challenged since it came out, conservative claim that it has sexual explicit language, and others conceal their homophobia behind the cover, they say it is inappropriate for kids to see two boys kissing in a bookstore, or in their school libraries. Actually, it is considered one the ten most challenged books of the year according to Office Of Intellectual Freedom, what is more confusing is that most of these books mentioned deal with LGBTQ+ issues, so the question is not about suitability of these books for the young readers as much as it is purely homophobia. Some parents claim that the book doesn’t appeal to a wide audience, and it is provokingly against school libraries policies, but at the same school libraries you find straight couples kissing, which only proves the point.

David Levithan wrote the book to show the progress the LGBT community is undergoing, yet expose the homophobia that backfires whenever it gets the chance, and his point is accurate considering the attack on the book.