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National Religious Leadership Roundtable meeting will bring together leaders of GLBT groups and faith-based organizations

Leaders in the religious and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) communities are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC, in the semi-annual National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR) next week to discuss issues of faith and sexual orientation and to amplify the voice of pro-GLBT faith organizations in public discourse.

Set to convene from February 4 and 5, the Roundtable meeting will include a public event focusing on the response to events of September 11 and the roles of progressive people of faith. The event, titled Hate Violence: Our Response At Home and Abroad, will feature two panels of experts and a performance by a local choir.

NOTE TO EDITORS AND ASSIGNMENT DESKS: The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 4, at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, 5th and Ridge Streets, NW, Washington, DC. (Call 202-638-7373 for detailed directions.)

"The GLBT community knows all too well the devastating impact of hate violence, and has long understood the relationship between hate-motivated crimes and the intolerance expressed by religious fundamentalists," said NGLTF Executive Director Lorri L. Jean. "It is heartening to see progressive people of faith stepping forward and organizing to create a powerful voice against bigotry, hate and violence."

NRLR, which has met twice a year since 1998, is an interfaith network of leaders of faith-based organizations, representing Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Mormon, Black Church and other religious and spiritual traditions. NRLR has met previously in Salt Lake City, Utah; Miami, Fla.; Orange County, Calif.; and Colorado Springs, Colo. Convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and founded with Equal Partners in Faith, NRLR promotes a progressive agenda that contrasts the religious right's line on homosexuality, which champions eternal punishment and repressive "reparative" therapy.

The public event will be made up of two panel discussions. The first is "911, Responding to Hate from Abroad" and will be moderated by Faisal Alam, founder and director of Al-Fatiha Foundation, an international organization of GLBT Muslims. It will feature Sharon Burke of Amnesty International, Jim Matlack of Churches for Middle East Peace, and Mark Israel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The second panel is "Responding to Hate at Home" and will be moderated by Marco Grimaldo of More Light Presbyterians and will feature Gregg Maisel, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; Daayiee Abdullah, Al-Fatiha Foundation; Kay Whitlock of American Friends Service Committee; and Elenora Giddings Ivory of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington Office.

Participants of the Roundtable include: Affirmation International, Gay & Lesbian Mormons; Affirmation, United Methodists; Al-Fatiha Foundation; American Friends Service Committee; Americans United for the Separation of Church and State; Brethren Mennonite Council; Christian Lesbians OUT; Christians for Justice Action; Conference of Major Superiors of Men; Dignity/USA; Disciples, Justice Action Network; Ecumenical Catholic Church; Equal Partners in Faith; Fellowship Tabernacle; Gay, Lesbian and Affirming Disciples; Human Rights Campaign; Integrity; Interfaith Working Group; Interweave Continental; Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Kashi Ashram; Lutherans Concerned/North America; More Light Presbyterians; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; New Ways Ministry; Pacific School of Religion; Parents, Friends, and Families of Lesbians and Gays; People For the American Way; Q Spirit; Reconciling Ministries Network of the United Methodist Church; Religious Organizing Project of Kentucky; San Francisco State University; SDA Kinship International; Soulforce, Inc.; That All May Freely Serve; Unitarian Universalist Association; United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Concerns; Unity Fellowship Church; Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches; Woman Vision; Women’s Alliance for Theology Ethics and Ritual; and World Congress of GLB Jewish Organizations.

Visit http://www.ngltf.org/nrlr for more information on the National Religious Leadership Roundtable.

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The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and by building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.