Bauer's collection of short stories does an admirable job of illustrating the complexity and richness of gay life, the difficulties of being gay in a homophobic society, and the ways in which people of all colors and situations may be gay. There are Jewish, African-American, Chinese, Hispanic, Vietnamese, and Euro-American characters in these stories. There are urban characters, rural characters, and suburban characters, and even some foreign and fantasy characters. There are intact families and divorced families, families with grandparents living with them and families isolated from other relatives. Eight of the stories are specifically about girls and their sexuality, and the other eight focus on boys.

One of the strengths of all of these stories is that people are not demonized, only ideas are demonized. There are parents who do not understand their gay teenagers, parents who sometimes say cruel things, but there are no...