Boy Meets Boy

Sometimes librarians get reference questions pass that uncomfortable stage and just get embarrassing. I've had my fair share. The key to handling these questions is by being stoic and unflappable. Never let them know how put off you are by their question. Once I had one of our adult literacy volunteers who we call "Oxymoron" and his male friend ask me for materials on love and relationships. I told him I needed a little more information to help narrow down the search. His reply: " You know books about man and woman love, woman and woman love but mostly just man and man love." This guy teaches adults to read. It's not the whole gay thing that puts me off it's just the "do you have any books on man and man love" question. Dude, just ask for books on homosexuality. We live in the twenty-first century it's okay to be gay. It's not as if the whole staff doesn't know by now he's gay. Oxymoron is a repeat Internet offender as he's been caught accessing gay porn on the public computers facing the children's section. He's also been known to print out pictures of men in compromising positions. There's nothing quite like being greeted by naked, sweating, men in a torrid embrace adorned in Santa Hats during the holiday season as it spews forth from the reference desk printer. It's just not cool- go to a club.

Then there was a young teen who needs a good book to read for a book report. She says she's not a reader so I ask her what kind of movies does she like? Her reply"comedies". Oh crap, I'm kinda at a loss as to what to recommend . As we suvey the YA Fiction she pulls out a book titled "Boy Meets Boy" by David Levithan and asks me what the book's about. My reply is "it's about a boy who who falls in love with another boy." Her question to me then is what do you mean? I star at her blankly not knowing exactly what to say. I end up repeating myself. I don't know if she got the whole it's a book about a homosexual teens explanation I was trying to send telepathically.