Jin Y. Park is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religion at American University in Washington, D.C. She specializes in Buddhist philosophy; her doctoral dissertation was on Zen Buddhism and postmodern thought.

Janice Willis is a retired professor emerita of religion and social sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. She is the author of Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey. Read an excerpt on Beliefnet.com. Willis has talked about her journey from the segregated, revival-preacher South to a Buddhist monastery in Nepal where she began to find peace.

Janet Gyatso is a specialist in Buddhist studies and author of multiple books, including Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet (2015).

Ann Taves is professor at the University of California – Santa Barbara. She wrote the article “Religion and Same-Sex Relations in the American Context” for the Religious Studies Review.

Gilbert Herdt is professor of sexuality and anthropology at San Francisco State University and director of the National Sexuality Resource Center.

The Rev. Joretta L. Marshall is executive vice president and dean of Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School, where she is also professor of pastoral theology and pastoral care and counseling. She wrote “Covenants and Partnerships: Pastoral Counseling with Women in Lesbian Relationships” for the Journal of Pastoral Theology.

Fenton Johnson is a widely published commentator and author, including Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). He is gay and practices Christianity and Buddhism. He is on the faculty of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona.

Casey Self is director of cross-college advising services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered issues at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.

Leo Godzich is head of the National Association of Marriage Enhancement in Phoenix. His group opposes same-sex marriage.