You prefer a boy?', to the courageous field trip participant who passed up the universal favorite burger-and-fry combo in favor of the fruit plate with cottage cheese.”

For many of us, coming to terms with our gay selves during childhood was a painful experience. There is a spiritually healing effect in being able to share in the humor of other kindred souls who went through (and survived) the same emotional pain.

Perhaps as a light-hearted salute to the therapeutic value of his book, WIK editor Robert Trachtenberg recently attended a special sold out reading at New York City's own Therapy gay bar. At this media event, numerous gay authors recalled their own special moments of queer self-recognition and realization.

Additionally, Trachtenberg appeared with other gay notables, including psychologist/author Dr. Alan Downs (The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World) on the now famous “When I Knew I was Gay” Oprah episode of 11/17/05. Other guests on the show included Carson Kressley (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) and singer Billy Porter.

When I Knew's cast of contributors was drawn from gays and lesbians of varying levels of notoriety. While this is of interest, I think the book would still succeed even if all its writers were non-celebs. I found myself not even looking at names. (One can't usually identify a famous person from their childhood photos anyway) It doesn't seem to matter who each contributor is. It's the stories themselves that count.

One after another, When I Knew's reminiscences testify to both the clarity and sophistication of the gay youngsters' true callings. There is young John Epperson's (a.k.a. Lypsinka) immediate attraction for a movie poster for Gypsy; adolescent Michael Shulman's subscription to Women's Wear Daily; Kate Nielsen's and Elvira Kurt's childhood attraction to movies with nuns in them.

The stories in When I Knew are not only about when the writers themselves knew. Sometimes they were not the first to know. There are tales of when it was the writers' parents, grandparents and siblings who knew first. There are even accounts about when everyone except the writers knew.

Who did we think we were kidding? We read of the mom who gave Village People albums to her son year after year; the aunt who dyed her young nephew's hair to his liking, and the dad who's poker game buddies clued him in to his own son's true nature. My favorite in this category was the man whose wife and boyfriend had to sit him down and tell him "You're gay!"

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