How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
After some school-board member got all upset about gays in the locker room, I defended Tiny Cooper's right to be both gigantic (and, therefore, the best member of our s***ty football team's offensive line) and gay in a letter to the school newspaper that I, stupidly, signed. (1.3)
Will just can't stop sticking up for Tiny—even when they were kids, he didn't see an issue with Tiny being gay—so it's sort of his knee-jerk reaction to help his best friend out in this situation.
Quote #2
"We need money so that we can stage our production of Tiny Dancer."
"Oh. My. Sweet. Holy. God," I say, because Tiny Dancer is this musical, written by Tiny. It's basically Tiny's slightly fictionalized life story, except it is sung, and it is—I mean, I don't use this adjective lightly—the gayest single musical in all of human history. Which is really saying something. And by gay, I don't mean that it sucks. I just mean that it's gay. It is actually—as musicals go—quite good. The songs are catchy. I'm particularly fond of "The Nosetackle (Likes Tight Ends)," which includes the memorable couplet, "The locker room isn't porn for me / 'cause you're all too damned pimple-ey." (3.8-9)
Tiny is so unapologetically Tiny that he has even written a musical about his life. That little song that Will mentions also ties into the whole gay-kid-in-the-locker-room controversy that Will wrote to the school paper about.
Quote #3
Jane says, "Look, are people going to make fun of it? Absuh-freakin'-lutely. But it's honest. It's funny, and it's accurate, and it's not full of crap. It shows gay people as whole and complicated—not just like 'oh my God I have to tell my daddy that I like boys and wah-wah it's so hard.'"
Gary rolls his eyes and exhales through pursed lips like he's smoking. "Right. You know how hard it is," he says to Jane, "since you're—oh, wait. Right. You're not gay."
"That's irrelevant," Jane responds. I glance over at Jane, who's giving Gary a look as Mr. Fortson starts talking about how you can't have Alliances within the Alliance or else there's no overarching Alliance. (3.47-49)
Does Jane have a point here? Do lots of plays and books and movies about gay characters feature the same exact themes? Is this why Tiny's play should go on—to show a different perspective? And does Jane have the right to say this when she's not actually gay herself? Hmmm… those are some good questions. We'll let you try to answer them.