Clergy Call Presenters
Press Conference
Rev. Dr. Anthony Campolo
Rev. Dr. Anthony Campolo, is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University. He was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania for 10 years. He is the founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education. He has authored 35 books. Dr. Campolo is married to Peggy. They have two children and four grandchildren.
Father Richard Estrada
Father Richard Estrada, C.M.F, is the founder and president of the Jovenes, Inc., a permanent housing program that serves at-risk immigrant youth and other disadvantaged individuals from the East Los Angeles area and is also assigned full time at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church, La Placita, in downtown Los Angeles, which serves 10,000 immigrant families per week. Estrada is a graduate from the University of San Francisco, attended the Graduate School of Theology in Berkeley, was trained as a community organizer for the United Farm Workers and served as chairperson for the Youth Gang Services committee for United Neighborhood Organization. He delivered the opening Prayer to the 110th Congress, September 2007.
Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson
Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson is the spiritual leader of the Cathedral of Hope and serves as the keeper of the Vision of the Cathedral. Currently, Rev. Hudson holds clergy standing in the North Texas Association of the South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ, and serves on the board of directors for the Justice and Witness Ministries of the UCC. In 2001, Rev. Hudson received a Pastoral Renewal Grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., which promotes leadership education and financial self-sufficiency in the nonprofit, charitable sector.
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs is Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Kol Tikvah in Los Angeles, Cal. Among his many social justice contributions, Jacobs served as part of the interfaith delegation to Yugoslavia with Rev. Jesse Jackson and helped to bring about the release of the captured American soldiers; he actively participated with service union workers for wage reform; and during the post-election 2000 uncertainty, Jacobs emerged as the prime force in the renewal of the Black-Jewish Coalition. For these and other activities throughout his life, Jacobs received the 2001 Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award.
Rev. Dr. Cynthia (Cindi) Love
Rev. Dr. Love (Cindi) is an ordained minister in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) currently serving as Director of Advocacy Services for the West Texas Rehabilitation Center (Shelton Foundation), Founding Director of FAMLO, (www.famlo.org), a nonprofit organization and Minister of Community Services for Exodus Metropolitan Community Church in Abilene, Texas. Dr. Love served as Executive Director of Metropolitan Community Churches from January 2005 to May 2009. Dr. Love is the author of Would Jesus Discriminate? The 21st Century Question and developer of the multi-national campaign of the same name on behalf of MCC. She brings expertise as a multi-disciplinary leader in a Fortune 500 corporation, as a company founder, as an executive in one of the largest public education systems in Texas and as an author and lecturer, trainer and facilitator.
Rev. Manish Mishra
Rev. Manish Mishra has traveled extensively throughout the world, living in India, Oman, Finland, and for brief periods in Switzerland. This international exposure gave him the opportunity to live in countries where Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity have helped define the cultures. He brings this multi-religious appreciation to his ministry, and draws on a variety of faith traditions and narratives in his preaching and worship.
Rev. Drew Phoenix
Rev. Drew Phoenix is currently affiliated with St. John’s United Methodist Church in Anchorage Alaska, serving in the area of Environmental Health and Justice as Managing Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics. Phoenix has been an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church for the past twenty years and prior to coming to Alaska has served a variety of ethnically diverse, urban congregations in both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland where he is known for building membership by inspiring congregations toward social justice. Phoenix came out publicly as a trans male to the clergy and laity of the Baltimore-Washington Conference in 2007 and despite several charges filed against him as a transgender minister, his position as an ordained elder was upheld and no anti-transgender legislation was added to United Methodist law.
Bishop Tonyia M. Rawls
Bishop Tonyia M. Rawls is the founding pastor of Unity Fellowship Church in Charlotte, N.C., and in April 2008 was consecrated as one of the first women bishops in the Los Angeles-based Unity Fellowship Church Movement’s history. Rawls’ rapidly growing Charlotte church is the first of the denomination’s churches to open in the Bible Belt; its various ministries cover domestic violence, praise arts, HIV/AIDS, literacy and wellness. She has received numerous awards, including the Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign Carolinas Steering Committee and the Charlotte Business Guild’s Don King Service Award.
Rev. Dr. Steven V. Sprinkle
Rev. Dr. Steven V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBT person to be tenured there. Author of two books, his current project is a book in process on the lives and untimely deaths of 25 LGBT hate crimes murder victims, Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memory of LGBT Hate Crimes Murder Victims.
Joe Solmonese
As President of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese’s vision for equality is clear: to make sure that HRC is wherever there are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans, and to equip them with the resources he can to help secure equality. Under Joe’s leadership, the National Journal rated HRC the second most successful interest group in all of Washington during the 2006 election, demonstrating that Joe has the political, strategic and communications skills to make the organization a powerhouse both in Washington and around the country. Before coming to HRC, Joe was Chief Executive Officer of EMILY’s List. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science degree in communication and hails from Attleboro, Massachusetts.
Rev. Dr. Traci C. West
Rev. Dr. Traci C. West is Professor of Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School in New Jersey. She is a clergy member of the United Methodist Church, the author of Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter (2006) and editor of Our Family Values: Same-sex Marriage and Religion.
Interfaith Service
Featuring
Rev. John H. Thomas
Rev. John H. Thomas was elected General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ at the General Synod in Providence, Rhode Island, 1999. He serves as one of five officers of the Church comprising the Collegium of Officers, which guides the national ministries of the United Church of Christ. In 1991 he was appointed Assistant to the President of the United Church of Christ for Ecumenical Concerns. Rev. Thomas is a graduate of Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (1972) and Yale University Divinity School (1975).
Bishop Yvette Flunder
Bishop Yvette Flunder was consecrated in 2003 the Presiding Bishop of Refuge Ministries and The Fellowship, a trans-denominational fellowship of 60 primarily African-American Christian leaders and laity representing churches and faith-based organizations from all parts of the country and Africa. In addition to her work as the Presiding Bishop, she is also the senior pastor for City of Refuge, a thriving inner-city congregation that celebrates the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ. Flunder is an internationally sought after preacher, educator and conference speaker. Her influential book, Where the Edge Gathers, lays out her vision for a radical inclusive faith.
Reflections and Readings
Rev. Amy Butler
Rev. Amy Butler is the Senior Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Prior to coming to Calvary in 2003, Butler served on the staff of Saint Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans and, prior to that, she directed a shelter for homeless women in New Orleans. Butler is currently working toward a DMin in preaching from Wesley Theological Seminary.
Dana Beyer, M.D.
Dana Beyer, M.D., is a well-known advocate for health issues as well as gender rights. She is Vice President of Equality Maryland, former Executive Vice President of Maryland NOW, founding member of the Progressive Working Group, member of the Board of Governors of the Human Rights Campaign, and board member of Mobile Med. She is currently Senior Adviser to Council member Duchy Trachtenberg of the Montgomery County Council. She lives with her two sons in Chevy Chase.
Rev. Elisheva C. Clegg
Rev. Elisheva C. Clegg is an ordained interfaith minister, pastoral counselor, and active member of the chaplain volunteer program at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is also a founding board member of Interfaith Humanitarian Sanctum, a non-religious, non-profit charity organized to assist visiting long-distance families, generally of meager means, with lodging, food and travel expenses. She has been involved for many years in the fight for equal rights of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.
DeWayne Davis
DeWayne Davis is the Domestic Policy Analyst in The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations where he represents before the U.S. Congress the domestic social policies established by the church’s General Convention and Executive Council, including issues of human rights, welfare, poverty, hunger, health care, violence, civil rights, the environment, and issues involving women and children. Davis is also a leader in the Metropolitan Community Church nationally and locally at the MCC, Washington, D.C. He is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree from the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.
Rev. Dr. Sidney D. Fowler
Rev. Dr. Sidney D. Fowler is the managing editor for the Human Rights Campaign’s preaching and devotional resource, Out In Scripture, and the interim pastor at Hope United Church of Christ in Alexandria, Va. He has worked for the national settings of both the United Church of Christ in worship and spiritual formation and the United Methodist Church in educational curriculum. Fowler has represented the United Church of Christ on the Consultation Common Texts, the ecumenical body that developed the Revised Common Lectionary; authored What Matters to You? Matters to Us; and served as an editorial developer for Imaging the Word and the international ecumenical resources Seasons of the Spirit.
Rev. Louise Green
Rev. Louise Green has been the Minister of Social Justice at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington D.C. since 2004. Ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1992, she served as Associate Minister in two UCC congregations in Sudbury, Massachusetts and New York City and was a lead community organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation for eight years in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. Currently she is working on an interdisciplinary applied philosophy M.A. at Tai Sophia Institute in Maryland.
Harry Knox
Harry Knox joined the Human Rights Campaign as the Director of the Religion and Faith Program in July 2005. Under his leadership, the Religion and Faith Program has developed a weekly preaching and devotional resource that provides scriptural commentary to ministers and lay people interested in an ecumenical LGBT perspective on the Bible, has created a speakers bureau of 13 religious leaders who reach on average 10 million Americans a month, supports 22 state progressive clergy coalitions nationwide and has created the first Clergy Call for Justice and Equality in April 2007. Knox has been featured on programs as diverse as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the Michael Medved Show, BBC News, PBS, NBC and has appeared in numerous national and local newspapers.
Rabbi Toby H. Manewith
Rabbi Toby H. Manewith has served for the past four years as the Associate Rabbi at Temple Micah, A Reform Jewish congregation located in the District of Columbia. Manewith also works as an independent Jewish educational consultant, writing curricula and teaching for many organizations including: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, the Professional Leaders’ Project, Smithsonian Resident Associates, Moving Traditions, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the DCJCC. Outside of her professional life, she is active in community organizations, serving on the DC advisory council of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, and the Executive Committee of Yachad: The Jewish Housing and Community Development Corporation of Greater Washington.
Darlene Nipper
Darlene Nipper is a Buddhist, Interfaith Minister, and the Deputy Executive Director for the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, where she brings nearly 20 years of management and advocacy experience to the organization. She has held leadership positions in the government, corporate and nonprofit sectors, including the city government of Washington, D.C.; Black Entertainment Television Foundation; the National Mental Health Association; and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where she served as chief operating officer.
Musical Performances
Rosalie Boxt
Rosalie Boxt currently serves as Cantor of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Maryland, a 500 family congregation just north of Washington DC. Boxt also serves as the Vice-President of Member Relations and External Partnerships of the American Conference of Cantors, and was invested Cantor from the School of Sacred Music of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 2001. She is married to Jason whom she met at Jewish summer camp, and mother to Tahlia and Arielle.
Saria Idana
Saria Idana is a poet/musician/dancer and arts-educator who has worked as a solo and ensemble performer in New York and Los Angeles and whose poems have appeared in journals and chapbooks. She is a cultural Jew who was raised in a Sufi Community where she learned from the teachings of Mystical Islam and was steeped in an understanding of the unity of religious ideals. In her creative material, as in her life, she stands for the right of all people to have and engage in self-determination. More info at http://www.sariaidana.com
Lynn Loosier
Lynn Loosier is a soul singer who resides in New York but whose roots go to the heart and soul of Georgia. She has been a featured soloist at both Lincoln Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Loosier has sung backup for Jennifer Holliday, Sam Harris and local favorite Julian Fleisher and has shared the stage with Broadway and television actor, Tom Wopat. She recently sang at the famous "Apollo Theater" in Harlem.
Marvin Matthews
Marvin Matthews has eight recordings to his credit and two video presentations. He began singing at age eight and received his degree at the Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas. Matthews has been the featured soloist with the Spurrlows, and has toured Korea, Japan and all of Europe. He has worked with artists such as Debbie Boone, Bob Hope, Little Richard, Deniece Williams, and CeCe Winans.
The MCC-DC Gospel Choir
The MCC-DC Gospel Choir, founded in 1992, is composed of people of varied religious experiences who love to sing and share God’s love through song. The choir’s goal is to allow God to use their gifts and talents to help others experience the love and joy of God. While gospel music originated in the African-American church tradition, MCC-DC’s Gospel Choir expands that tradition by introducing gospel music to people of all colors and spiritual backgrounds.
Washington Youth Choir
Washington Youth Choir, founded in 2005 by renowned music educator, Joyce Garrett, the Washington Youth Choir (WYC) is a free afterschool music education and college preparatory program. Building on Garrett’s past success with the award winning Eastern High School Choir, the WYC enhances the educational experience of DC area youth with the rigorous study and performance of music and facilitates their transition out of high school. Through our two-part program we inspire youth to lead happy productive and meaningful lives.
Conference
Plenary Speaker
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopalian church, invested as the Ninth Bishop of New Hampshire on March 7th, 2004. In addition to his present ministry, he is the co-author of three AIDS education curricula for youth and adults and has done extensive work on AIDS in the United States and in Africa (Uganda and South Africa). He helped build the Diocese of New Hampshire's close working partnership with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, advocated for debt relief for the world's most impoverished nations, and lobbied for socially responsible investment within and beyond the Church. He currently serves on the Board of the New Hampshire Endowment for Health, which works for access to health care for the uninsured. He also serves as a Trustee of the Church Pension Fund and is a member of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion Council.
Welcome
Betsy Pursell
Betsy Pursell is the Vice President for Public Education and Outreach at the Human Rights Campaign. Before joining HRC in 2006, Betsy was the Executive Director at a national youth violence prevention organization. Betsy also served as the upper school principal at an independent school in Maryland for ten years and was a teacher, coach and director of admissions at a Boston area private school before moving to DC. Betsy holds a BA in International Relations from Colgate University; an Ed.M. from Harvard University; and a CAS and Doctoral credits from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Panelists
Faisal Alam
Faisal Alam is a queer-identified Muslim activist of Pakistani descent. Struggling to reconcile his own sexuality with his faith, Faisal founded the first international LGBT Muslim organization called Al-Fatiha in October 1998 to support and empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and intersex Muslims seeking ways to integrate their faith and their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since Al-Fatiha's inception, Faisal has traveled across the country and around the world meeting with LGBTIQ Muslims to build a global queer Muslim movement.
Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Rabbi Denise L. Eger is the founding rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood's Reform Synagogue where she has served since 1992. Eger is President of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and the first female Rabbi to be elected President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California and is a member of the Human Rights Campaign Religion Council. She was recently named one of the FORWARD 50 by the Jewish Daily Forward national newspaper, as one of North America's most influential rabbis for her work on LGBT equality.
Lea Gilmore
Lea Gilmore is a blues, gospel and jazz singing civic activist who has lent her voice, literally and
figuratively, to advocacy for the underserved of the world and made a huge difference. She is the Director of Pride and Faith, and Program Director of Maryland Black Family Alliance and member of the advisory board for the U.S. Gilmore was named by ESSENCE MAGAZINE as one of “25 Women Shaping the World” in 2006.
Joyce Hardy
Joyce Hardy is an ordained deacon who since moving to Arkansas in 1991, has served in three congregations, has been the Archdeacon and has worked on several social justice campaigns. In addition to serving as the President of the North American Association for the Diaconate, Hardy is a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship National Executive Council, the Human Rights Campaign, Integrity, Arkansas Families First, the Arkansas Friendship Coalition and the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance. She currently works with the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Arkansas House of Prayer, and Harmony Health Clinic.
Ellen Kahn
Ellen Kahn joined the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in November 2005 and has overseen the creation of a Welcoming Schools project aimed at providing administrators, educators and parents/guardians with the resources they need to create learning environments that affirm all students. She also oversees the Healthcare Equality Index, which rates U.S. healthcare facilities on their policies and practices related to the LGBT community. Prior to joining HRC, Kahn spent eight years as director of the lesbian services program of Whitman-Walker Clinic and played a lead role in creating the first comprehensive LGBT parenting conference in the district, drawing more than 300 people from the region.
Rev. Elizabeth Leung, Ph.D.
Rev. Elizabeth Leung, Ph.D., is the coordinating minister of the Asian and Pacific Islander Roundtable at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. She coordinates the Network on Religion and Justice (http://www.netrj.org/) for Asian Pacific Islander LGBT people. Rev. Leung is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and a scholar of Christian spirituality.
Melanie "Mel" Martinez
Melanie "Mel" Martinez serves Metropolitan Community Churches worldwide as the Director of Online Ministries and Co-Lead of MCC Transgender Ministries. Her tenure with transgender advocacy in Metropolitan Community Churches began in 2005 with the advent of the Transgender Resource Team. Mel also serves in the position of Staff Intern Pastor at a local MCC congregation in Abilene, Texas. She is scheduled to complete her Masters degree studies at Perkins School of Theology in May 2009 and hopes to be ordained in Metropolitan Community Churches later this year.
Carolyn Mobley
Rev. Carolyn Mobley was ordained by the General Conference of Metropolitan Community Churches in 1995 and has since then served as an Interim Pastor and an Associate pastor in Tulsa, OK and in Houston, TX. Before and since her ordination she has been an activist for LBGT civil rights, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and Marriage Equality. Having traveled to South Africa, Australia, and throughout the USA, Rev. Mobley now lives in Atlanta, GA and is traveling with her partner as they share a Ministry of Inspiration, offering Praise and Prose to various church and community groups.
Rev. Elijah Nealy
Rev. Elijah Nealy, an openly identified transgender man, has for the past 25 years worked extensively with LGBT adolescents and adults in both pastoral and social service capacities. Currently he is in private practice as a clinical social worker and is available for trainings, workshops, preaching, and consultation. Ordained with Metropolitan Community Churches, Nealy has served as a local church pastor in New Jersey and as Regional Coordinator for MCC congregations in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
Allyson Robinson
Allyson Robinson joined the Human Rights Campaign as Associate Director of Diversity in 2008 to lead the organization and its volunteer base in promoting awareness of transgender issues and to ensure that all program areas demonstrate measurable commitment to transgender equality and inclusion. A 1994 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Robinson resigned her commission in 1999 to pursue a calling to Christian ministry. She earned a master of divinity degree in theology, with a capstone emphasis in social justice, from Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary in 2007.
Marty Rouse
Marty Rouse is the Human Rights Campaign Field Director and is tasked with mobilizing the Human Rights Campaign’s 750,000+ members and supporters to effect change at the federal, state and local level. Before joining HRC, Rouse headed MassEquality, where he helped build MassEquality into one of the state’s largest and most powerful political groups – a national model that combined grassroots organizing with strategic electoral focus. Rouse’s deep political and field experience also includes his work in Vermont to protect the pro-civil union majority in the state Senate in 2000.
Cuc Vu
Cuc Vu is the chief diversity officer for the Human Rights Campaign and works to broaden community support for LGBT equality and to make diversity a critical element of HRC’s culture. Under her leadership, HRC has produced the groundbreaking Equality Forward Survey that documents the concerns and priorities of LGBT African Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders, Latinos and those of mixed race. Prior to coming to HRC, Vu worked for the Service Employees International Union, where her calm leadership helped establish SEIU as the most effective union on immigration issues, according to The Washington Post.
Rev. Tara Wilkins
Rev. Tara Wilkins serves as executive director of the Community of Welcoming Congregations in Oregon and southwest Washington. As a person of faith, she is an ardent activist for Trans-Les-Gay-Bi inclusion and equality. Wilkins has earned a solid reputation in the Pacific Northwest as an inspiring speaker, workshop leader and preacher. In 2006, she was instrumental in producing the first-ever interfaith transgender conference held in Corvallis, Oregan. Photo by Marty Davis
Lobby Visit Trainings
Burns Strider
Burns Strider, a native of Grenada County, Mississippi, served in an array of positions, prior to founding the nation’s premiere faith and values consulting firm, Eleison Group, including Senior Advisor and Director of Faith Outreach to U. S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and her campaign for President, Director of Policy for the U. S. House Democratic Caucus, Advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) , Director of the U. S. House Democratic Faith Working Group and Rural Working Group and regional Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In 2007 Strider was named one of the 12 most influential Democrats in the nation on faith and values politics and issues by Religion News Service. He has developed field, outreach and communications plans used in over 63 congressional and statewide races as well as a teaching tool for the National Democratic Institute in their work with progressive political parties in foreign countries.
