The National Catholic Partnership on Disability has diocesan and archdiocesan affiliate members. Janice Benton is executive director.

The American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has a Religion and Spirituality Division. Its mission is to promote spiritual growth for people with developmental disabilities. Margaret Nygren is executive director and CEO.

Partners Against Hate works to educate young people about hate and hate crimes. It is based in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-452-8310.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs tracks incidents of violence and harassment against LGBT people. Clarence Patton is acting executive director.

Ginny Thornburgh is director of the Interfaith Initiative at the American Association of People with Disabilities, where she works to help the disabled and their families gain access to spiritual and religious resources. She previously served for many years as director of the National Organization on Disability’s Religion and Disability Program. Thornburgh is co-author and editor […]

An April 8, 2009, story in The Washington Post, “Some Link Economy With Spate Of Killings,” examines links between the recession and 57 killings in eight mass-murder crimes over the course of a single month last spring.

Several high-profile hate crimes have made headlines in 2009, confirming fears for some that bias attacks are on the rise. They include the April killing of three Pittsburgh policemen by a right-wing extremist and the shooting in June at the Holocaust Museum in Washington by an elderly white supremacist that left a security guard dead.

Leila R. Milani is senior international policy advocate at Futures Without Violence. She was co-chairwoman of the Working Group on Ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and NGO liaison for women’s issues for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in the U.S.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is an umbrella organization of more than 200 smaller organizations that works to promote human rights throughout the U.S. Wade Henderson is president and CEO, and Nancy Zirkin is the group’s policy director.