Joe Baca was a U.S. Representative in, D-Calif. He sponsored House Resolution 76 to establish a legal holiday recognizing Native Americans’ contributions.

Read an article about how Berkeley changed the Columbus Day holiday into Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 1992, after the city declared Columbus not a hero. 

Richard L. Bushman is the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor of Mormon Studies, an endowed chair at Claremont Graduate University in California, and author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. A prominent scholar of Mormonism, he has given talks on the relationship between Mormonism and American politics.

Scott Gordon is president of FairMormon, an organization that defends Mormon theology. FairMormon is based in Redding, Calif., and previously was called the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research.

Read an article about Native Americans’ Day that explains when, where and how that day is celebrated.

FairMormon, a nonprofit organization founded by defenders of the faith, holds a conference each year featuring presentations by top experts in Mormonism and focused on a range of issues facing the LDS.

Former California state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, sponsored legislation – vetoed Sept. 6, 2006, by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – that would have prohibited in public schools teaching or instructional materials that discriminate against people based on sexual orientation.

Jane Iwamura is the chair of the religious studies program at the University of the West in Rosemead, Calif. She specializes in Asian-American religions, race and popular culture. She co-edited Revealing the Sacred in Asian & Pacific America.

Carolyn Chen is an associate professor in the ethnic studies department at the University of California, Berkeley, whose research interests include religion, ethnicity, immigration and sociology of work.