Warren J. Blumenfeld

Associate Professor, School of Education, Iowa State University

One does not have to be a biblical scholar to know our society does not and has not followed many of the principles the Bibles dictate on issues of marriage. Let's look at some of the religious teachings, many pointing out that the institution of marriage was constructed very differently from what some today consider as "traditional."

Felipe Matos

Co-Director, GetEQUAL

My immigrant experience can never be divided from my queer experience. What I love about the LGBTQ community is our diversity of experiences, and our stories, but the different ways that discrimination touches our lives creates a special challenge for leaders in our movement.

Dana Beyer

Executive Director, Gender Rights Maryland

I hope Chad Griffin and Jeff Krehely take the time over the next few months to sit with the trans community to find a way past injuries and old wounds. If Israel and Turkey can resolve their differences, surely HRC and the trans community can.

Mark Daniel Snyder

Communications Manager, Transgender Law Center

Arizona's proposed bill that would allow businesses to deny restroom entry to anyone suspected of being transgender -- or if they just don't like how masculine or feminine you are -- is another illustration of how important it is for the LGB community to stand with our trans brothers and sisters.

Brynn Tannehill

Defense research scientist

Last night the Arizona House Appropriations Committee passed a new version of the notorious "Bathroom Bill." It isn't hard to see how this bill has potential for extreme abuse.

Ash McGovern

Student, Cornell Law School

In debating what justice and equality for LGBTQ communities looks like, how historic this moment is, and what other historic accomplishments are yet to be had, it's important for us to consciously support all types of relationships (married or not) and all forms of justice.

Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Ph.D.

Oakland-based award-winning artist, writer and social entrepreneur

Here are four ways that non-profits focused on transgender advocacy can utilize the core of social entrepreneurial thinking to make a lasting impact for all members of the trans community.

Laverne Cox

Actress, producer and transgender advocate

"I am a survivor of sexual abuse and domestic violence. I'm from the South side of Chicago. You know from a lower-middle-class family. I'm dark skinned. I'm plus-sized. I'm afro-centric and therefore I'm marginalized even within the margins."

Raymond C. Martins

Chief Medical Officer, Whitman-Walker Health

it's vital to come out to your health care practitioner. You will have a stronger doctor-patient relationship based on trust and honesty, which will lead to improved health care and health outcomes. This may not be an easy thing to do.

Tobias Rodriguez

Recent Grad, Princeton University

GLAAD's ability to jump on the trans rights bandwagon is easy enough because they've already shown they can and that they care. What they've yet to show is how they'll do so without repeating the mistakes the cis LBG and straight people routinely make.

justin adkins

Transgender activist and educator

I'd gone to mixed martial arts training and boxed with cisgender guys, and no one had had any clue that I'd been designated as "female" at birth. I don't hide the fact that I'm transgender; I just don't see any reason to bring up my trans status with that group. Allow me to explain.

Lucas Waldron

Student, University of San Francisco

I hope the next generation of transgender kids, who are panicking the way I did in third grade about impending puberty, will not have to limit their college applications to only those schools that recognize sexual reassignment surgeries as legitimate and necessary.

Courtney O'Donnell

Transgender actress, advocate, and writer; star, 'Lexie Cannes'

In May, 2013, the paradigm for the way the medical profession view transgender people changes -- soon we will no longer be classified as having a "mental disorder." The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual is being updated and the "disorder" stigma soon to be removed.

Spectra

Writer, storyteller, media advocate and 'love activist'

We were sisters. It didn't matter if we were tomboys or not. We were sisters. It didn't matter that some of us wore skirts, and some of us wore shorts. We were sisters. That was all that mattered. Right? Wrong.

Mara Keisling

Founding Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality

As we face a new Congress with our rapidly growing power and a quickly filling armamentarium of legal remedies, we need to make sure that ENDA, when it passes in a few years, moves our rights forward. We are no longer powerless mendicants. We are no longer starting from zero.

Brynn Tannehill

Defense research scientist

There is a price to be paid for having a narrow trade space for ideas. When we get used to seeing and hearing only one side of things, it numbs us to the fact there are a lot of perspectives out there which are very much different from our own.