Karen Lebacqz is professor of theological ethics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. She co-authored the book Sex in the Parish.

Jonathan K. Weedman is program director at the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center in Portland, Ore. He is skilled in multiple forms of counseling strategies including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Motivational Interviewing.  

Wingspan is a community center in Tucson that serves lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in southern Arizona.  

Pam Bennett, who until 2002 was Bruce Dennis Bennett, is running in the 2007 City Council election in Aurora, Colo.

Lori Meeks is associate professor of religion and East Asian language and cultures at the University of Southern California. She is co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism section.

Richard P. Hayes is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of New Mexico who has written extensively and taught courses on Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy.

Christian K. Wedemeyer is associate professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School and co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism section.

Thomas A. Tweed is a professor in the religious studies department at the University of Texas at Austin. His books include (as author) The American Encounter With Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture & the Limits of Dissent and (as co-editor) Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History.

Charles D. Orzech is a professor in the religious studies department at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and serves on the steering committee of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism section. His specialties include medieval Buddhism and Taoism.