Emily Hecht-McGowan

Director of Public Policy, Family Equality Council

Just as those who came before our daughter Sadie fought to make the world a better place for her, our pledge to Sadie is that we will teach her, through our words and our deeds, that she too has a responsibility to those who come after her.

Charlene Obernauer

Executive Director, Long Island Jobs with Justice

Pride parades, or "gay liberation protests," as they were first called, have been critical to bringing about LGBT rights all over the world. But we've abandoned their initial purpose as a call for equality. We owe it to ourselves, and to our history, to call upon our rich activist traditions.

Judy Rickard

Author, 'Torn Apart: United by Love, Divided by Law'

I lost Mom to cancer in 1992. Dad lasted more than a decade without her and passed in 2003. I thought I wouldn't come out to family anymore after that, but life has a funny way of shaking you up.

Scout, Ph.D.

Director of The Fenway Institute's Network for LGBT Health Equity, Boston.

A year ago I wrote a HuffPost blog post decrying the apparent stall in LGBT research integration at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Now I'm happy to say NIH is moving forward with good speed on this topic.

Jason Howe

Writer, media relations consultant and dad

Any Supreme Court victory for backers of Prop 8 and DOMA will be a Pyrrhic one. One by one, their arguments have been exposed as falsehoods and have no power as American society moves toward full acceptance of LGBT rights. Their arsenal is empty.

Jessica Joseph

Award-winning copywriter

This is not a "who had/has it worse than whom" or a "which trait is more deserving of equal rights" contest. This exploration is about the systematic tactics employed by racists and homophobes to instill a negative self-perception in others and how strikingly similar they are.

Mary Kay Henry

President, Service Employees International Union

As a country that counts equality among our basic values, we should never single out one group for harsher treatment. We're better than that.

Mark Koberg

TV Producer, Mindfulness Meditation Enthusiast

It was in October of 2008, within a month of being promoted to executive producer of the long-running court show Divorce Court -- I was diagnosed with HIV. The collision of these two things happening simultaneously resulted in a full-blown emotional crisis.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Photographer and filmmaker

It was California Proposition 8 that pushed us to make -- perhaps angered us to make -- The Out List in the first place. It airs on HBO, June 27th, the 44th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Desi Bailey, M.D. and Hector Vargas, J.D.

Today, an LGBT person will be refused health care because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. It could be you or someone you know and love -- and it could be the difference between life and death.

Hon. Richard Gottfried and Nathan M. Schaefer

Would you believe that in 2013, in the progressive state of New York, discrimination is still legal? It's true. One group of New Yorkers can be fired from their jobs, turned away from services and even evicted from their homes -- simply for being who they are: transgender New Yorkers.

Lilah Sutphen

Attorney, Heath-Newton LLP

I recently visited New York City. If there is one city I love as much as San Francisco, it's the Big Apple. I love the culture, its effervescence, and the city's progressive stance on today's issues. But I do have one major qualm with the state of New York: its antiquated laws on surrogacy.

Alison Winfield Burns

Author, 'Infatuation'

Neglect and inaction slew our loved ones. Mowed them down like lawn. But if Freddie Mercury is in his grave, so is Mayor Koch. May God rest their souls. Don't we wish them all back again, oh so ardently and with so many tears, don't we wish?

Ryan Campbell

Editor at DRM Capitol Group, Media Manager @DRMAction

LGBT DREAMers explained how they felt that they came out of the closet twice: their friends that were not LGBT would treat them differently and make nervous jokes about them being gay, while their LGBT friends would often be similarly uncomfortable and insensitive about them being undocumented.

Reggie Cameron

Writer contributing to OUT, Queerty, and Condé Nast; blogger, NowMyButtHurts.com

Luciana's lyrical style artfully blends with those of Cazwell, as does her personal style. Their chemistry can be seen in the song's music video. The shoot had many antics, including a visit from the fire department after neighbors noted massive amounts of pink smoke leaving the set.

William D. Blake

Assistant Professor of Political Science, IUPUI

Buried in the oral argument transcript of the Proposition 8 case is a potential revelation of how Justice Kennedy might be thinking: Don't think of it as "gay marriage" but as "same-sex marriage." Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation isn't the problem; gender discrimination is. Wait, what?

Linda Stratmann

Author

"The tower of ivory is assailed by the foul thing" wrote Oscar Wilde of his encounters with the Marquess of Queensberry, although later, in Reading Gaol, he feared that history would consign him to "the lowest mire," while judging Queensberry as "the hero of the hour."