Dylan tells me that he never worried about what his family would think his school concerned him. Every gay teenager I speak with has one: For many of them, coming out was the most charged few hours of their lives, the moment the theoretical part of homosexuality ended, when being gay was no longer something over there, it was you. While Greg searches for his 48 Hours videotape, Dylan and Tara tell their coming-out stories. Tara and Dylan came out the old-fashioned way, without the benefit of television. He’s quiet, toweringly tall, with jeans ripped at the knees and shiny Frankenstein shoes. Tara Conroy is fifteen, small, busty, cheerful, with steel studs in both ears. We’re sitting in a living room with two of Greg’s friends.

Asked what it was like to discuss something so personal so publicly, Greg smiles. Greg Whiting, a fifteen-year-old with red curly hair and blue fingernails, has come out as gay three times: once to his parents, once to his school and once to a national television audience on 48 Hours.