Poem Analysis: Gendered Roles and Identification as Queer

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The Claim
The central theme that appears in both poems is gendered roles. Richard Blanco's poem is about queer and the roles each was supposed to play in the old context. Richard Blanco's poem depicts what it was like for him as a child to be pressured to act in a certain way that was deemed "masculine." Despite the poem being titled "Queer Theory" and the narrator being gay, it is more concerned with gender conventions than actual sexuality.
Nikki Giovanni's poem does not touch on sexuality but emphasizes gendered roles in the old days. The poem depicts a young girl whose grandmother specializes in making rolls. From the poem, the grandmother wants to pass the knowledge down to her granddaughter so that if she dies, the young girl will be in charge of making rolls for the family. She tells her, "I want chu to learn how to make rolls," said the grandmother.
The Context
Blanco's poem reflects on what made boys and girls (back in the day) queer in the eyes of everyone around them and the ignorance people had as a result of the fixation with maintaining an image. He says, "I learned a lot from her, I got a lot of support from her...