[2] Due to the book's intended audience and the controversial topic of gay relationships, there have been numerous attempts to remove it from schools and libraries.

Additionally, the boy accompanies his father and Frank on multiple excursions, including trips to the zoo, beach, and a baseball game.

[4] Under the Gay Men's Small Press category, Willhoites won a Lambda Literary Analysis award in 1991 following the book's release.

[4][6] Publishers Weekly praised the book for raising public awareness for the lack of children's literature acknowledging homosexual relationships.

[7] A critique in Entertainment Weekly by Michele Landsberg echoed a similar sentiment, arguing that the sensitive topics of divorce and re-coupling were treated with relative indifference.

[9] Acknowledging that gay and lesbian people exist, Finnessy attests, is not necessarily deeming homosexuality proper so much as it is addressing a reality that children will experience.

[12][14] Lon Mabon, an Oregon politician, used Daddy's Roommate and Heather Has Two Mommies in his campaign to amend the state constitution to allow for discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

[15] Daddy's Roommate became a point of discussion during the 2008 US presidential election when it was alleged that Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin had attempted to remove the book from a public library in Wasilla, Alaska.

[19] Other notable attempts to censor the book are listed below: Prior to writing Daddy's Roommate, Michael Willhoite served in the Navy where he created drawings of surgeries and medical implants.

In the tenth anniversary edition of Daddy's Roommate, an afterword is included by Willhoite reflecting on the book's tumultuous early history.