Amazon reader review: This is an excellent dose of both therapy and guts! Berzon gives effective strategies for handling homophobia and taking back your life. She even goes as far as to psychoanalyze the frame of mind and motivations that lie inside the mind of everyone from your typical homophobe, to your religious fundamentalist, to racist/gay-bashing skinhead. She gives you a sense of empowerment by telling your the stories of what seem to be real gay and lesbian folks and even tells her own.

She even tells how to handle a media confrontation with a bully like James Dobson (something today's gay activists really need). Overall, this is a gem that I will keep and I recommend that anyone serious about the gay rights cause or standing up for what they believe in get a copy of this book, sit down, enjoy it, and pass it on to your friends for a little help in life.

It's more than some cheesy self-help book that makes you feel good and leaves you standing in the cold. Berzon goes as far as to tell you what to do in your daily life to make things better. She tells you how to argue, deconstruct homophobic remarks for the flawed items they are, and how to respond effectively and marvelously. She uses examples of real situations and conversations.

Before I read this book, I thought I have enough confidence to "get by" in a confrontation with homophobia. Now, I know for sure that I'll be the one coming out looking intelligence and knowing that I'm right.
 

 

Amazon reader review: This is an excellent survey (118 pages) of the issues people in the U.S.A. raise in the church's wrestling with how to treat homosexuals. While the doctrinal examples are United Methodist, the biblical issues apply to any denomination. It reads like it comes from a newspaper columnist, which it does. It would be a good quick read for anyone wanting to understand the history of homosexual issues in the church, the biblical references most commonly used to condemn or support homosexuality, and the specific doctrinal actions that the Methodist church has taken, beginning with the first inclusion of the subject in 1972. It also includes excerpts from the writings of prominent (and not so prominent) people who resist the church's condemnation of homosexuals, and a surprising (at least to me) list of prominent people throughout history known to be homosexual.