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.

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.

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?

Neil G. Giuliano

CEO, San Francisco AIDS Foundation; former mayor of Tempe, Ariz.

When we promote and permit intolerance through bans on same-sex marriage, we enable and encourage feelings of marginalization, depression, and isolation among gay people. As a result, things like substance use, alcohol consumption, and sexual risk taking increase.

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."

Brynn Tannehill

Defense research scientist

Last week's Pew study on LGBT people paints an extremely negative picture of the battlespace as it stands for transgender people. We have almost no cultural acceptance. We lack all the traditional methods for changing this for the better. The risk of being "left behind" is strong.

Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson

President, Auburn Theological Seminary

Now is the time to dispense with the classic stereotype that religious leaders oppose same-sex marriage. A growing multifaith movement of religious leaders is helping the faithful understand how religious teachings and text compel celebration of LGBT people and relationships, not rejection.

Claire Pomeroy

President, Lasker Foundation

Many LGBT seniors fear that the health-care system is judgmental and have experienced discriminatory care or lack access to culturally competent aging services. To address this crisis, the U.S. must adopt a new perspective that emphasizes health, rather than just health care.

Mitch Kellaway

Independent transgender scholar, freelance writer

I witness Ezekiel's first Father's Day in a Philadelphia hotel room. I surmise that there are numerous others within our community celebrating this first today, one pinnacle amongst the many precious firsts that transgender men experience throughout our gender transitions.

Aaron Ricciardi

Playwright, lyricist and actor

We live in a world where if one little thing rubs you the wrong way about someone you're dating, you can get on your device and shop for someone else. People are so busy running from person to person that no one's holding still long enough to see whether they actually like who's in front of them.

Maurice Tracy

American studies doctoral candidate, Saint Louis University

I live in a world where I didn't hear someone romantically call me desirable until I was 26. I live in a world where either body privilege or racial privilege is always against me. So I point my camera at my face and I click. I am what some would call ugly, but I don't see it.

Anthony Romeo

Happily married gay man; plaintiff, Romeo v. Seton Hall University

You see, I'm going to be in Erie Park in Montclair on Saturday at 4 p.m., walking with Garden State Equality. We're going to be walking to raise money to override your veto, and I just thought that maybe you should be there.

Dr. Joe Wenke

Author, 'You Got to Be Kidding! The Cultural Arsonist’s Satirical Reading of the Bible'

What exactly is it about a human being's sexual orientation that triggers such hate? What's it to them -- the haters of gay, lesbian and bisexual people -- whom other people are sexually attracted to and love? Why are transgender people so hated, so marginalized?

A.J. Walkley

Author, 'Queer Greer' and 'Choice'

I recently had the pleasure to sit down with filmmaker Becca Roth as she heads to Kickstarter to make her LGBT-related documentary, One: A Story of Love and Equality, a reality.

Eliot Armand Glenn

Freelance writer and cultural commentator; MPA candidate, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

In response to vicious hate crimes against LGBT New Yorkers, City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn is sponsoring an insulting series of classes in "street smarts" and self-defense. As a policy response to these tragedies, Quinn's offer is inadequate and inappropriate.