Veselin Kesich is professor emeritus of the New Testament at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y.

Annie Van Avery is executive director of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, based in San Francisco.

Aristotle Papanikolaou is Archbishop Demetrios Professor of Orthodox Theology and Culture and Senior Fellow and co-founder of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y.

Timothy Johnson is Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-St. Paul. His books include, as co-author, Religious Institutions and Minor Parties in the United States. He wrote the entry on Roe v. Wade for the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics.

Kenneth Roth is executive director of Human Rights Watch. Read the organization’s 2001 report “Hatred in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools.”

Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was murdered in an anti-gay crime, established the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which has offices in Casper, Wyo., and Denver. She supports anti-discrimination programs in schools and legislation against hate crimes.

Read a September 2010 Religion News Service story posted by The Huffington Post about the increasing prominence of Mormonism in the national arena.

Read a March 26, 2011, New York Times column by Maureen Down on “the Mormon moment.”

Jody M. Huckaby is executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians & Gays, which has a program for safe and inclusive schools.