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Conference Presenters |
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In the mid-1970’s, while still closeted, Dr. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott began to advocate at church conferences on behalf of lesbian and gay Christians. In 1978, with Letha Dawson Scanzoni, she published Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?. She has been a speaker at hundreds of universities, church conferences and seminaries, received awards for her work combating heterosexism in religion, and served as a board member for various GLBT friendly organizations. Her most recent and radical work, Omnigender: A TransReligious Approach, won the 2002 Lambda Literary Award. |
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Dr. Mary Ann Tolbert is the George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical Studies at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California (since 1994). Since the Fall of 2000, she is also the Executive Director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. Prior to coming to PSR, she taught at North Carolina State University and Vanderbilt University. She has published a number of books in biblical studies, including Perspectives on the Parables and Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World in Literary-Historical Perspective. She is editor of a three volume series on Social Location and Biblical Interpretation and one volume on feminist hermeneutics and the Bible. The author of numerous articles and book chapters, she is currently teaching and writing on the pressing issues of lesbian and gay liberation and queer theory and the Bible. |
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Jenn Burleton is an outspoken advocate on behalf of transgender and gender non-conforming children, youth and their families. A founder of TransYouth Family Advocates, she has been a key figure in raising national awareness of childhood gender non-conformity. Her acclaimed short film, Out of the Shadows, has been viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube and translated into several languages. A sought after speaker, Jenn has appeared at national events such as the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and been a feature presenter and facilitator at many premier gender identity education events throughout the United States. She is the 2007 recipient of The Ingersoll Center Service Award for her efforts on behalf of transgender children, youth and their families. |
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Faisal Alam is a queer-identified Muslim activist of Pakistani descent. He is founder and former director of Al-Fatiha, a US based organization dedicated to supporting and empowering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning Muslims. Faisal has spoken at various events across the country including LGBT interfaith services, inter-religious LGBT panel discussions, synagogues, churches, PFLAG meetings and other community events. Faisal’s presentation Hidden Voices: The Lives of Queer Muslims, has been featured at more than forty universities and colleges across the nation. He has been a plenary and keynote speaker at major events including the 2001 Creating Change Conference of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Forces, the 2001 Amnesty International’s Mid-Atlantic & Mid-West Regional Conferences, and the University of California 2003 system-wide LGBT Conference. In addition to his LGBT faith-based activism, Faisal has campaigned on behalf of other social justice concerns including human rights, immigration and asylum rights, HIV/AIDS education and LGBT youth. |
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