The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, antigay bias, bullying, suicidal ideation, and cursing.

“Seven years of bad luck can slurp my ass. It’s been way too long since I punched something, and that vanity had it coming. Stupid mirror. Stupid Yami. Whatever. Mirrors are overrated, and punching them is underrated. I’ve never liked looking at myself anyway. Not because I don’t think I’m cute. I mean, I am cute—objectively—but that’s beside the point. I like this new reflection better. It’s cracked enough that I’m hardly recognizable. Splintered in all the right places.”

The broken mirror symbolizes Yami’s fractured self-image after being outed by her former best friend. Her first-person narration employs sentence fragments (“Stupid mirror. Stupid Yami.”) that mirror her emotional fragmentation. The symbolic preference for her “splintered” reflection reveals Yami’s discomfort with her full identity, foreshadowing her strategy of concealment at her new school.

“It’s a fancy-ass Catholic school, but it’s a fresh start, for both of us. And at least now I’ll know to keep my mouth shut about any crushes. This time, I’ll be stealthy gay. Like Kristen Stewart.”

Yami’s ironic use of “stealthy gay” establishes her concealment strategy for survival at Catholic school, setting up the novel’s exploration of Finding Self-Acceptance Despite External Judgment. The reference to actor Kristen Stewart functions as both humor and a recognition of LGBTQ+ representation that exists beyond Yami’s immediate environment. This moment of sardonic self-awareness contrasts with the genuine vulnerability she displays elsewhere, highlighting her defensive coping mechanisms.

“The last time I saw him in person was at a protest. There was this anti-immigration law getting passed that would make racial profiling legal and my dad wasn’t having it. I thought his green card would keep him safe, but I was wrong. He got arrested at the protest, and I haven’t seen him since. After that, I stopped standing for the pledge.”

This passage connects Yami’s personal loss to broader sociopolitical issues of immigration enforcement and civil disobedience. Her father’s deportation forms the background for her own quiet resistance in refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, illustrating how personal trauma shapes political consciousness. The short, declarative sentence “I was wrong” conveys the harsh reality of immigration enforcement that contradicts American ideals of “liberty and justice for all” mentioned earlier in the chapter.