In these memoirs, coming out is less important than coming of age and realizing that young gay people experience the world in ways quite unlike straight boys. Whether it is a fascination with soap opera, an intense sensitivity to their own difference, or an obsession with a certain part of the male anatomy, gay kids — or kids who eventually identify themselves as gay — have an indefinable but unmistakable gay sensibility. Sometimes the result is funny, sometimes it is harrowing, and often it is deeply moving. Essays by lauded young writers like Alex Chee (*Edinburgh*), Aaron Hamburger (*Faith for Beginners*), K. M. Soehnlein (*The World of Normal Boys*), Trebor Healy (*Through It Came Bright Colors*), Tom Dolby (*The Trouble Boy*), David Bahr, and Austin Bunn, are collected along with those by brilliant newcomers such as Michael McAllister, Jason Tougaw, Viet Dinh, and the wildly popular blogger Joe.My.God.