“P.S. 14, you do not know anything about sex or how to have it safely. Fourteen-year-olds nowadays can use something called the Internet to find good info on sexuality at www.advocatesforyouth.org. And when they’re eighteen, they can go to www.babeland.com for what they need.”
Pages 97-98:
“And sex is the only thing we want to talk about. No wonder: We’re the only boy in the world who falls in love with other boys. We don’t feel lonely; we have lots of friends. We feel alone, cut off, isolated, weird, maybe a little scared. Are we always going to be the only boy in the world who falls in love with other boys?”
“Having sex is never the problem. Nice girls don’t put out at Horny High. It’s easy to jack off with their disappointed boyfriends. Almost all of them are up for that. No big deal. It’s what straight guys do. Except we aren’t straight guys. We’re the editor of the school paper and having sex with our friends is what we do. It’s a perfect arrangement.”
Pages 113-114:
“You got permission from Mom and off you went on a Friday afternoon. It was April, wildflowers blooming. You drove high into the Rockies past patches of snow in a yellow International “into the Rockies past patches of snow in a yellow International Harvester. And that first night while your buddy slept, the cool, tall dude, who knew the names of constellations, who could spot a spruce from a cedar, a Hereford from a Holstein, he pulled you into his sleeping bag. It was late and dark and he was so warm and oh God you let him. He slipped off your underwear and touched you and you came for the very first time. The pleasure of it so deep and sharp it cut right to heaven and back and you knew right then you were damned. Ruined.”
Page 248:
“You’re even going to believe it yourself for a while. When you’re happily (but guiltily) exploring sex with your buddy Tom, even while you’re crushing on the gorgeous-but-unavailable Cheryl, you’re both going to be telling yourself that messing around with a male friend is just a substitute for “the real thing.”
Page 268:
“Then there’s sex. You can relax about that. The yearning you have to hold guys close and enjoy the sexy feelings that go with that will have its day in the sun. Yep, you’re going to get plenty of chances to take those delicious desires and run with them. It’s a perk of adulthood.”
Page 348-349:
“Turns out, though, these details become the very slingshot into a greater life. You move to Seattle. You walk into a feminist, queer-owned sex store. You ask if you can work there. You recognize it as a refuge, a place where queerness thrives, a public space that speaks the truth against all American odds. And it’s true, queer is the right place for you. You tell your boyfriend that you are just going to work there a few nights. He understands, but he has no idea you will leave him for all this.”
Page 350
“P.S. 14, you do not know anything about sex or how to have it safely. Fourteen-year-olds nowadays can use something called the Internet to find good info on sexuality at www.advocatesforyouth.org. And when they’re eighteen, they can go to www.babeland.com for what they need.”
Page 393
“What enthralls you at twenty-five but repulsed you at thirteen — anonymous, animalistic sex — you will look back on with nostalgia.”
