Letters to the Editor
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JT Leroy was very important to Middle and High School kids.
What the Waldman article did not explain, and that many of the letter writers do not seem to realize, is that JT Leroy was very important to, and heavily influenced many young people. Maybe you have not heard of Leroy, but there is a good chance that if you have kids between the ages of 13 and 20 either they or their friends have.
I worked as a substitute teacher a few years ago, and remember that at every Middle School and High school that I went to there would be a group of kids who had devoured these books, and absolutely believed every word. The band Garbage even wrote a song about him (Cherry Lips), and said that everyone in America should be required to read his books. I don’t doubt that many of their fans did.
These kids were often troubled, and all of them were naïve. Their lack of experience with the real world led them to take everything that happened at face value. I have no doubt that these kids really did believe that there are child prostitution rings at truck stops in West Virginia. Some of the kids who had grown up in bad situation did find inspiration in Leroy’s story, how he was able to overcome his past (if he could overcome being a transvestite prostitute, I can overcome my lecherous step father, etc.), and I have no idea what effect these new revelations will have on them. I just hope that by now they have out grown their hero worship phase.
JT Leroy did not just deceive the coastal literary elite, he influenced a swath of impressionable youth, and that, more than whether Waldman was dubed or not, should be the real story.