If You Kiss A Boy Poem Analysis

If You Kiss A Boy is a story written by Alex Sanchez, who is openly gay and knew he was when he heard the word at the age of 13. The story is about a boy named Joe, who realizes he is gay and kisses his best friend, Jamal. Joe struggles to accept that he is gay and isn't sure who he is and is trying to find himself. He asks for input from several people and how they feel about being gay. He wasn't sure if he was gay at the time he kissed his friend and he didn't know if it was okay to be gay because of the society he lived in. Joe lacks the support of his peers, parents, and others. He only receives support from one teacher, who is looked down upon because of his sexual orientation. Joe's dad had told him being gay was a sickness and leads Joe to believe being gay is bad. This story shows how teens struggle and handle being gay and how they react to their openly gay peer. Through theme and plot, a great story is unveiled, showing the realities of middle school life and finding your true identity. The main theme in this story is finding yourself and dealing with the societal pressure of being gay. In this story, many kids and even parents, are prejudiced against being gay and think poorly of it. For example, kids in Joe's school call each other gay or say

It shows how gay people feel when they realize they are gay. They want to hide it and constantly tell themselves they aren't because of how others feel about someone being gay. This story explains why people who establish themselves as gay often wait a long time to tell others. They wait so long because of the fears they have of what could happen if they opened up. The story was also great at revealing what goes through a thirteen year old's brain in middle school and through the first person view. Unfortunately, often times kids that are gay are seen as being an "abnormal" person and this leads to bullying and other