Called OUT: The Voices and Gifts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Presbyterians, edited by Jane Adams Spahr (Chi Rho Pr; ISBN: 1888493003), can also be bought on Amazon.com. Called Out With, excellent as it is, is the companion to this first book.

This is a wonderful book from the straight-allied point of view to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered ordination rights in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Yet it is meant to be a companion piece to an earlier book published by Chi Rho Press entitled Called OUT: The Voices and Gifts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Presbyterians, edited by Rev. Dr.Jane Adams Spahr. Shouldn't Amazon carry this book as well?

As a gay man, I attempted to marry my man last year. I was met with ignorance, prejudice, and hatred! The issue was further complicated because of the fact that I was white and my love black! The local newspaper actually carried a banner headline reading "Local Man Marries Man!" This book illistrates that same sex marriage can and must work in America!

The book makes an excellent case. It not only asks why not? it also explains why. I feel like sending this book out to all of my friends as an amazing resource during one of the most important civil rights struggles of recent times. It is hard to characterize gay couples struggling to be married as promiscuous opponents of civilized society.

A Charmed Couple introduced me to Walter and Matilda Gay, American expatriates in France in the late 19th and early 20th century. Walter Gay was a painter, primarily of interiors of chateaus and grand houses of France and America. Matilda was a society hostess and dedicated diarist. Both were unknown to me before I received this book as a gift (and a very fine gift it makes, too). The Gays were friends with important artists, writers and political figures, as well as English and French aristrocrats and many wealthy, international socialites. Quoting often from Matilda Gay's diary with its witty, observant and often acerbic comments on people she knew, author William Rieder gives brief, anecdotal accounts of the Gays' friendships with a diverse group that included writers Henry James and Edith Wharton, the artist John Singer Sargent, Robert and Mildred Bliss (who later created a beautiful home and garden at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.), Henry Clay Frick and his daughter Helen (whose house is preserved as the Frick Collection in New York City). The text is interesting and witty, the reproductions of Walter Gay's paintings of beautiful rooms and views are delightful, and the book design is attractive. A Charmed Couple, as a whole, is a lovely, frothy concoction -- fun to read and to look at.

Mr. Rieder has fashioned a fascinating account, both artistically and sociologically, about a farily obscure artist and his wife. As world travellers they both entertained and were feted by John Singer Sargent, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Elsie de Woolfe, Henry Frick Clay and an entire bouquet of royalty. They seem to have helped define the great Golden Years before the First World War changed everything. Mr. Rieder has effortlessly captured this with both wit and insight. It's handsomely produced with many photographs and images of Gay's work. I've found it to be a perfect gift item.

My friend recommended to me "Last Stand". I hadn't heard of it and I don't know why. (Actually, I do.) There hasn't been a book published like this in years. Sam could be George Bush. I'm so sick of mealy mouthed writers equivocating about their positions...This guy pulls no punches. This book is a vicious assault on dumb America. A litmus test for the kidn of person you are. Deal with it.

I found this book while I was living in England at Border's in Oxford. When I look for books I read the first page and if it catches my attention ill read it. When I picked up this book I read the first page and couldn't stop. But I couldn't read the whole book in the store so I bought it. I was also looking for a book because I was taking a week trip in the French Alps. I finished this book in four days. I was addicted. The writing in it was different from any other book I have read. It never got boring and you felt for the main character even though he was a pessimist, and I am the most optimistic person I know. When I was done I gave this book to my friend Paddy to read and he also thought it was great. I definately suggest this book to anyone who is looking for a different style of awesome reading!

Nietzsche's announcement of God's death first appeared here, in The Gay Science. Also, this is the first book in which he mentions the Eternal Reccurence (see the second to the last aphorism of the fourth "book"). Zarathustra's prologue is also here (that's the last aphorism of the fourth book). Book 5 of the Gay Science was added in 1885, and covers Nietzsche's mature philosophy (post-Zarathustra period). Overall a good read.

Section 312 of this book is called "my dog" (on a combination of being faithful, obtrusive and shameless, "just as entertaining, just as clever as every other dog" (p. 177), but it is about Nietzsche's relationship to his pain. There is another book by Nietzsche, THE WANDERER AND HIS SHADOW, in which section 38 mentions "The bite of conscience" as a stupidity, like the bite of a dog into a stone. (Portable Nietzsche, p. 68). There is also a section in THE GAY SCIENCE about beggars using a stone to knock where there is no bell. This translation has an entry in the index for "beggars, and courtesy." The Walter Kaufmann translation listed section titles on pages ix-xviii, but Kaufmann didn't have an entry in the index for beggars or for bell, and though I may have rung Walter Kaufmann's bell a number of times, before and since I started writing reviews, my mental efforts to knock the war against the United Stoners of America has reached such a modern point of indifference in its approach to everything that what Walter Kaufmann thought about anything is of hardly any concern to those who would like an understanding of what is going on. I expect this book, which allows a comparison of minor differences on major matters, to be quite useful to me. I find it extremely comical when this translation makes something funny that in Walter Kaufmann's translation was only puzzling, but even the index of this book skips from women to words with no entry for wooden iron. There is no entry for iron between interruption, intuition, Islam, and Italian opera. But in the text itself, just before section 357 "On the old problem: `What is German?' " the end of section 356 raises the primary question any modern philosopher can face:

Free society? Well, well! But surely you know, gentlemen, what one needs to build that? Wooden iron! The famous wooden iron! And it need not even be wooden. (p. 217)

This is an excellent text. I highly recommend it for anyone involved in LGBT issues. This highly readable text will appeal to readers of all stripes, all orientations, so leave it out where others will see it... and wait to see who picks it up! Come out of the closet and bring someone with you. It's a wonderful journey.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with "Overcoming Heterosexism and Homophobia: Strategies that Work." Given its title (which to be honest does not exactly inspire confidence as to its "readability") and its size (448 pages of really fine print. Whoa!), I was really expecting yet another dry, boring, overly academic text that I was going to have to struggle through, not just to understand but to stay awake as well. But yet, as soon as I started reading it, I was caught off guard by two things: One, I was actually able to read the essays straight through and understand them the first time I read them (as opposed to having to read the same paragraph three or four or more times because the language is so dense and cumbersome as to be incomprehensible); and two, I found myself wanting to read more of the book. I felt the book did a great job of not only incorporating a great deal of information in a fresh, easy-to-understand manner, it also managed to be comprehensive without necessarily becoming overwhelming. "Overcoming" was that rare book that actually got me from the first chapter and kept me reading. Furthermore, it has been a long time since I got this excited reading a book, i.e. it was really enjoyable to read, and incredibly informative! "Overcoming Heterosexism and Homophobia: Strategies that Work" is definitely an invaluable resource for anyone interested in LGBT issues, and particularly for those individuals or organizations looking for ways to develop and implement programs that specifically address issues pertaining to homophobia and/or heterosexism.

And Patrick is never faint of heart. Witty, wise, deeply moving - usually all in the same 1 act play. And you get 7 plays here. My ex still hasn't given this volume back, and I hardly have the heart to ask for it, as I wish hir all the best, and this is the best... OK, I've changed my mind, either put out or give me one of my favorite books back you cur!

So concludes a wisecracking AIDS recluse in the last of these hilarious and heartbreaking one-act plays. Each one covers a decade in the lives of American gay men, from the sophisticated closets of the 1920's through our grimmest hour in the 1980's. Patrick may see little progress toward liberation, whether political or personal. But each decade is etched specifically and urgently, by a master playwright. You'll shed many a tear over this one, half of them from laughter.

This long-awaited contribution to the alternative sex culture ought to find a place on every corporate executive's bedside table. Hope for more to come.

As a progressive activist, I immensley enjoyed this anthology of movers and shakers in the GLBT movement. Introspective, energetic and visionary, they remind both allies and GLBT people although much has been accomplished, there is no shortage of public policy issues to focus their work on. AIDS, securuty clearances, lesbian feminism and dual identity conflicts of GLBT people of color are issues that will not go away until we deal with them substantively.

While I was famillar with some names... I was introduced to several unsuing heroes and role models. My only regret is that the book tended to gloss over instaces where the movement was not doing as well as it could have been. I believe this would have made some of the anthology more coherent. There are gaps which take away from the individual policy papers.

Even if I understood the National Gay Task Force eventually bevame the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to disadvow sexism, other readers might not be aware of the reason for the name change. More information on the Romer vs. Evans decision (which invalidated Colorado's virulently homophobic Amendment Two), a real victory at a time when the Supreme Court has no shortage of conservatives. The authors simply assume that people know the important bits and pieces that give the riveting stories meaning and importance. Given their backgrounds, this tendency is both troubling and unusual, little is accomplished by preaching to the choir

Still, the format of this book means it can also be used as a college textbook on GLBT issues and theory. Thus it is important to consider the book's above mentioned flaws as a fair description rather than a deliberate pan. Flaws and all, this book is recomended for anybody who wants to know what the "newest" civil rights movement has and is doing to improve American society.

Flashing on BENJI and the Dalmatians, I was astonished at both content and perspective upon cracking the pages of this genuinely original and inspired piece of work. Have been led onto unexpected paths before re items of art and entertainment, but as one who does not routinely seek out works on this subject, can honestly say the read was entertaining and rich in a humor often found lacking in efforts at illuminating areas of oppression.