Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks is executive director of the The National Black Justice Coalition of black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered leaders who support same-sex marriage.

Mel White is founder and director of SoulForce, an interfaith group committed to “ending spiritual violence perpetuated by religious policies and teachings against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.”

E.J. Graff is the author of What is Marriage For?: The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (Beacon Press, 2000) and an advocate for same-sex marriage.

The full report by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. on the effectiveness of four abstinence-education programs. According to the study, released in April 2007, participants “were no more likely than control group youth to have abstained from sex and, among those who reported having had sex, they had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated […]

• A poll released Aug. 3, 2005, by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 78 percent of Americans favor allowing public schools to provide students with birth control information while 76 percent believe schools should teach teenagers to abstain from sex until marriage. Solid majorities in every major religious […]

A January 2004 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, National Public Radio and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, found that 15 percent of Americans want abstinence-only sex education taught in schools, and 46 percent want abstinence taught along with contraception. Only 7 percent said they did not think sex education should be taught […]

Evan Wolfson is a lawyer and executive director of Freedom to Marry. He argued the Boy Scout case before the Supreme Court, as well as the Hawaii marriage case.

Charles A. Cesaretti is executive director of the Center for Sexuality and Religion, which helps faith communities sexual spiritual health and justice. It is based in Wayne, Pa.

Lou Sheldon is chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, a conservative group that wants a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, ban same-sex unions and ban gays from receiving benefits of any such unions.