At an increasingly difficult moment in American national discourse, a great deal is being said and done about queer lives. Significantly, people who are anti-LGBTQ often frame queer issues as inherently sexual, and therefore “age-inappropriate” for young people. Under this guise, steps are taken to render queer lives invisible, often by banning books. Written by the Young Authors of Shout Mouse Press, THE LIGHT LOOKS LIKE ME is a necessary corrective to this argument. The book showcases a broad diversity of queer lives and loves, rather than restricting or excluding them. Some are sexual, but most of them are not; the book brings stories, ideas, and lived experiences into a conversation. Crucially, this is presented by queer youth themselves (from ages 13 to 24). In these pages, they are allowed to speak for themselves instead of being shouted over, shouted passed, or shouted down to by supposedly well-meaning adults.
This diversity of experience is the central interest of the text. THE LIGHT LOOKS LIKE ME foregrounds “love” as its organizing principle, and there is some experience of romantic love in the collection. But exploration in the 13-24 age range is often tied to identity formation, and this is the underlying structural concept at play. “Self-love” is a significant theme here: coming to terms with one’s identity and celebrating it, rather than rejecting or fearing it. Indeed, several of the pieces that do feature sexual attraction turn on this same hinge: a critical part of the joy of such passion is the feeling that the self is seen and appreciated. Turning outward, much of this queer love is also communal. Several pieces foreground the joy of telling a close friend “I love you,” building a supportive family, or bonding with another person over a shared identity. These too are important facets of queer love, especially in the broader sense—as they exist outside the hegemonic model of love which privileges straight, monogamous romance. Wonderfully, these are not theoretical concepts: in THE LIGHT LOOKS LIKE ME, these are grounded, organic components of lived experience—recognizable to the youth who live these lives and tell these stories.
Within this diversity of ideas and observations, it’s important to note that not every story is a happy one. Self-love can mean rejecting an erotic or familial relationship when the other person refuses to recognize one’s whole self. Discovering one’s sexuality can involve confusion, mistakes, and heartbreak. As human beings, sometimes we make bad decisions—even when we know they’re bad decisions—due to the intensity of emotion we feel for another person. All these ideas flow through THE LIGHT LOOKS LIKE ME, but the darker interludes reinforce the sense that these youths are smart enough to recognize the complexity within themselves and their relationships—that they’re strong enough to learn and grow from them. These authors are ready to stand on their own feet and speak with their own voices, and it is well worth taking the time to listen to what they have to say.
Written by the Young Authors of Shout Mouse Press, THE LIGHT LOOKS LIKE ME is meaningful, moving, and often surprising as it explores different experiences of queer love.
~Dan Accardi for IndieReader