Journal Entry on The Kid- by Dan Savage - Essay Example

Journal Entry on "THE KID"- by Dan Savage In 1999, Mr. David McReynolds, a prominent socialist I the united s wrote a letter to his comradesregarding his views on Gay Rights. The most important line in the letter read the following: We have made great progress on the issues of gay and lesbian liberation - progress, which as a homosexual who "came out" in 1969, I can measure with amazement. But it is a battle that is not yet won. The vast majority of the world today regards homosexuality as a stigma and attributes it to being an abnormal tendency.

But those who believe and practice it regard it to just another human tendency. Today, Homosexuality is addressed as a religion in a variety of ways. Many religions tend to codify the morality of sexuality with no regard to the sex or gender of one's partner. In contrast, many of today's so-called opposed-to-same-sex religions and subsets oppose such relationships. This is a practice that has been felt worldwide as these religions spread to other continents. Most nations do not permit sex between unrelated individuals of the same sex above the local age of consent.

Some jurisdictions further recognize equal rights, protections and privileges for the family structures of same-sex couples, including marriage.In addition, some nations and religions mandate that homosexual and bisexual people restrict themselves to heterosexual relationships or abstinence. In contrast, certain countries, such as Iran and and even in some regions of Nigeria, the respective governments threaten transgressors with capital punishment, typically in accordance with certain Islamic beliefs.

There are often significant differences between official policy and concrete enforcement. But the present world has seen an uprising erupt from the homosexual entity. People today come forward boldly and proclaim they are Gays and Lesbians. There are even many well personalities who find a name in this list of homosexuals. Some prominent faces are Martina Navratilova, Sir Elton John etc., One among such openly gay individual is Daniel Keenan Savage who was born near Chicago, Illinois in 1964.

He is an openly gay American sex-advice columnist, author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor whose strong opinions pointedly clash with both traditional conservative moral values and those put forth by what Savage has been known to call the "gay establishment". He is also a playwright and theater director, both under his real name and under the name Keenan Hollahan, using his middle name and his grandmother's maiden name. Known for his nationally syndicated sex advice columns popularly collected in a book titled- Savage Love and as a regular contributor to NPR's This American's Life, Savage recounts what he and his boyfriend of two years went through to adopt a child through a book titled "The Kid".

In this book, Savage doesn't give an inch on the sexuality issue; it's hard to imagine that a homophobic reader would even pick up The Kid, but it happened. It seemed that Savage's unapologetic presentation of his life would quickly scare that reader off which isn't to say that he paints a rosy picture of homosexual cohabitation. The very first scene finds Dan's boyfriend, Terry, locking himself in the bathroom after a fight over the music on the car stereo. The misadventures continue through each step of the open-adoption process, in which Dan and Terry get to know their baby's actual mother, as also the first few weeks of parenthood.

After investigating the possibility of becoming biological parents with lesbian friends, Savage and his partner, Terry, pursued an open adoption through an agency. They met Melissa, a homeless "gutter punk," whom they liked, although they worried that she drank and took drugs recreationally during the beginning stages of her pregnancy. In the end, though, everything worked out for everyone involved. Through this book, Savage is at his best when detailing the emotional ups and downs that came with revealing that he was even considering gay parenting, including his anxiety about the possible disapproval of both gay and straight friends He also writes vividly about the ways his sex life changed and has also described about the difficulties he happened to face while trying to buy the right "baby things.

" Employing the blunt tone usually found in his columns, Savage humorously and honestly discusses his sexual practices including bondage and fantasies involving actor Matt Damon, his ambivalence about being a parent and his rage at his homophobic grandmother. His forthrightness in this regard is brave and daring in the face of constant social opposition that he and his fellow follows have had to face with respect to the issue of gay parenting. However, though Savage's chatty, mercilessly satiric style is effective in his columns and may be intended here to balance the optimistic underpinnings of his journey into parenthood, in this sustained narrative it definitely seems to have worn him a bit .

In the end, there would be only one word to describe this book-"Heart-touching".The Kid is a wonderful, charming account of real "family values" that proves the universal truth that- "love knows no limits".REFERENCES1) Dan Savage(1999) The Kid, Singapore:Emesco Books.