The Todd Glass Situation

I watch The Daily Show regularly on Hulu, and Todd Glass appeared on the show to promote his book, The Todd Glass Situation, which is about his life and coming out. I vaguely remembered Todd Glass, his name and/or his face. Unlike a lot of people who have come out, I didn’t think, “I knew it,” I initially thought, “I didn’t know that he was gay, but to be fair, I never thought about him or whom he sleeps with. Does it change his story? Not really, just never knew.” I initially didn’t consider reading the book even though I will read anything because unless Todd Glass is literally on my TV screen, I don’t think about him, but I was intrigued by the idea that his cover was so effective that even when he was on a reality tv show, his sexuality never came up. I went from never thinking about Todd Glass to thinking about him a lot because I THINK that I know a few people, who will remain nameless, that are gay, but try to hide it or at least hide it from me. I have always wondered why. I would like to think that I have made them feel comfortable enough so they would know that I already know, and they can stop using gender neutral nouns and pronouns or feel the need to hide huge swaths of their life from me while simultaneously respecting their boundaries and not intruding. On one hand, I’m a Christian so I think that it is understandable that someone would be hesitant-thanks, Westboro Baptist Church. On the other hand, I’m from NYC and live in Cambridge, which is lovingly known as the Socialist Republic of Cambridge. (Side note: Cambridge is an extremely wealthy community so I have no idea how Socialist it can be except that they let someone not wealthy like me live here so is that how it works?) I know it isn’t about me, but I still consider it a failing on my part-that I have once again failed to show empathy and love to yet another person in some way, but in this particular topic. So I decided to read The Todd Glass Situation. Even though a majority of The Todd Glass Situation addresses that issue, he also focuses on his learning disabilities in school, and how excited he was when he finally found something that he was good at, comedy. The Todd Glass Situation is a quick read, and an enjoyable one. I’m really happy for him. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Todd Glass, what it is like to have a learning disability, the difficulty of living authentically or comedy.