Am I Blue? response

         I found a reoccurring theme in "Am I Blue" by Bruce Coville. The story is about a boy, Vincent, whose life is changed when he meets Melvin, his gay fairy godfather. He shows him that he should be himself and that homophobia is wrong by turning all gay people in the country blue for a day so gay people can stop hiding. As he puts it " so straights would have to stop imagining they didn't know any gay people". A reoccurring theme in the story is the fact that you can't judge a book by it's cover and that things are not always so simple. This is shown through different characters in the book. For example, Vincent is watching the news and he sees a notoriously homophobic republican congressman. He is a very deep shade of blue. That is true to a certain extent in the real world. For example: Senator Larry Craig was caught with another man in an airport bathroom. He had been known for voting to refuse state's rights to recognize gay marriage.
          This can also be done in reverse. In the book there's a librarian named ms Thorndyke that everyone was convinced of being gay. As it turns out, on "BlueDay" she had no trace of blue on her. I found this to also be applicable in real life. There is a British comedian who in his act, dresses like a transvestite on stage. His name is Eddie Izzard, and he's not gay. Also, in the beginning of the story, Vince gets beaten up by a bully named Butch Carrigan who beats Vince because he thinks that Vince is gay. When BlueDay occurs, he's a very deep blue. This shows that usually people who preach homophobia are usually gay themselves. They just can't except themselves for who they are.
        I also like the idea that Melvin comes up with about homophobic words in the story. He says " my freinds called each other f****t and queer like how black folks call each other n****r--- to take the words that people use to hurt us and make them a positive thing". I like that idea of doing that, it gives the homophobes less power over people like Melv and kind of kicks sand in there faces. It makes the insults backfire which is a very clever idea. I also like that Bruce put in the reactions of the entire country.
           he said " reactions ranged from panic to hysterical denial to dancing in the streets" . This is a way of showing how indecisive the US is about gay rights. While like in NYC and San Francisco they might not care or be happy that something like BlueDay hastened. I think that in places like Texas or New Mexico. They would be very angry or sad that this kind of thing would happen. That's a pretty big  statement about what kind of opinions we as a  country have on gay rights.