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The National Religious Leadership Roundtable for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality today announced its endorsement of Jerusalem WorldPride 2005: Love Without Borders. It also congratulates Jerusalem Open House, the groundbreaking service center for LGBT residents of Jerusalem that is hosting and coordinating Jerusalem WorldPride 2005. As a proponent of World Pride, the National Religious Leadership Roundtable for LGBT Equality urges all LGBT people of faith and their friends and supporters to join the multitudes in Jerusalem in August 2005 to show that human rights transcend cultural and ethnic boundaries, our differences can be respected peacefully, and love knows no borders.

WorldPride 2005 will call the world's attention to the international LGBT community as we claim our rightful place in history and culture by bringing a message of dignity and acceptance to a holy city, sacred to three of the world's major religious faiths. Although the greatest traditions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity affirm the dignity of all human beings and their creation in the divine image, these same faiths are too often sources of hostility and intolerance toward LGBT people.

As a spiritual center for three of the world's great religions, the August 2005 event in Jerusalem will bring thousands of LGBT people of faith, and many others, together to confront prejudice with reality, to proclaim God's love for all people regardless of their sexual orientation, and to promote dialogue within and between religions about the acceptance of the gifts that LGBT people bring to the world. WorldPride 2005 will include opportunities to attend religious services, workshops on gay and lesbian social and political issues including LGBT marriage and an interfaith conference on religion and homosexuality.

In the face of difficulties surrounding the current conflict in Israel and Palestine, World Pride 2005 will create concrete and unique opportunities for peace building, relationship building, and access and engagement across differences.

"We are proud to join with our brothers and sisters around the world in celebrating a peaceful World Pride in all the religious shapes and forms it takes on," said Dr. Sylvia Rhue, director of Equal Partners in Faith and a member of the roundtable.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force founded and convenes the National Religious Leadership Roundtable for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality. The Roundtable promotes activities supporting a greater understanding of LBGT issues within religions and issues faced by LGBT people of faith. It is an interfaith network of leaders from pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender faith, spiritual and religious organizations. The Roundtable shares resources, supports one another and works in partnership with other justice-seeking groups to: amplify the voice of pro-LGBT faith organizations in public discourse; promote understanding of and respect for LGBT people within society at large and in communities of faith; promote understanding and respect within LGBT communities for a variety of faith paths and for religious liberty; achieve commonly held goals which promote equality, spirituality and justice.

More information on the Task Force National Religious Leadership Roundtable can be found at: http://www.thetaskforce.org/nrlr/index.htm

More information on World Pride 2005 can be found at http://www.beit-haverim.com/marchelgbt/WorldPride2005eng.htm

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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.