3.75 ( )

Gay Like Me is more a commentary about parenting rather than a memoir. Richie Jackson does a fine job interpolating Jewish traditions including his wedding to Jordan. The fact that Donald Trump and Melania attended is jaw-dropping. But the book tends to be preachy and feels like a sermon. Too much proselytizing ( )

If you are gay or know someone that is, if know someone that is struggling to understand, this book is a must.

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In this poignant and timely love letter to his son, producer Richie Jackson reflects on his experiences as a gay man in America and the progress and setbacks of LGBTQ citizens over the past fifty years.

"My son is kind, responsible, and hardworking. He is ready for college. He is not ready to be a gay man living in America."

When Richie Jackson's eighteen-year-old son born through surrogacy came out to him, the successful theater, television, and film producer, now in his fifties, was compelled to reflect on his experiences and share his wisdom on life for LGBTQ Americans over the past half-century.

Gay Like Me is a celebration of gay identity and a sorrowful warning. Jackson looks back at his own progress and growth as a gay man coming of age through decades of political and cultural change. We've come a long way since Stonewall, he marvels: discrimination is now outlawed in most states, gay men and women can marry, and drugs can protect against AIDS and mitigate its effects.

Jackson's son lives in a newly liberated America. Yet nothing can be taken for granted. Bigotry and hatred still exist, nurtured by a president whose divisive, manipulative language exacerbates fear of "The Other," drawing support and votes for excluding minorities and anyone who can be labelled "an outsider." A newly constituted Supreme Court with a conservative tilt could revoke laws and turn the clock back years. Gay identity can be worn with pride, but gay citizens cannot be complacent Jackson warns; they must always be vigilant that their gains are fragile.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates did in Between the World and Me, Jackson offers a response to our anxious and uncertain times. An intimate, personal exploration of our most troubling questions and profound concerns—about issues such as human rights, equality, justice—Gay Like Me is a book for all who care about tolerance, diversity, and social progress. Angry, proud, fierce, tender, it is powerful letter of love from a father to a son that holds lasting insight for us all.

I GOT THIS BOOK AS AN AMAZON KINDLE PROMOTION.

My Review: I'm afraid this isn't my kindest review.

Your cotton is down, Miss Richie. A wealthy white man using WEB DuBois quotes to bring up points in the QUILTBAG struggle needs to cross a high bar of interrogating his privilege, acknowledging his appropriation and justifying it, and not speaking to the son he conceived through surrogacy and raised in the world where that simply *is* as though that is the world his son will inherit. Much has changed since Stonewall. But much that has changed seems not to have made a mark on the author...or the publisher. Between the World and Me does not inhabit the same ZIP code as this book, any more than the authors do.

Now for the parts I can relate to, and acknowledge as positive: This is a good and solid rumination on the trajectory of the movement for 2SLGBTQIA+ to be fully included in the politics and culture of this country. I'm glad this gay dad is writing to his gay son about his life, and his work to make the world more inclusive. I simply wish that he had been more aware of what did not get dome and who was not included, and asked his son to advance the work already done. Sadly it was left as "this is your dad" and that, in the 2020s, is just not enough. ( )

Richie Jackson is a successful television and film producer, perhaps best known for producing the film Shortbus and the TV series Nurse Jackie. He is currently married to fellow producer Jordan Roth, but prior to meeting Jordan he had been in a 15 year relationship with actor B.D. Wong. His son by surrogacy from that relationship came out to his parents as a teenager. He is the son that Jackson addresses in this book.

This book is modeled after other "letter from your father" works like Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. While I really liked that idea, and while there is much that Jackson talks about that I can relate to as a gay man of roughly the same age, there was something about this book that just didn't click for me.

Some of it is that, after getting into the book I realized that Jackson was modeling his book a bit too closely on books like Coates', and seemed to be reaching too far to equating parts of the gay struggle with the Black experience. It seemed a bit much for a well-to-do white guy like himself.

Some of it is that in places he comes across like a grumpy old man complaining about how gay kids today have it too easy.

The flip side of all that is that I think the book covers a ton of relevant and useful information and it would be worthwhile for gay youth to read.

Bottom line, I'm conflicted on this one.

Having said all that, I would recommend reading this one if you haven't already, and again, especially if you are a gay youth. So I give Gay Like Me Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐. ( )