Advocacy Group: Faith in America

The advocacy organization "Faith in America" sets the bar pretty high with their mission statement--"Ending the Harm Caused by Religious-Based Bigotry."

From their website:

Faith In America's mission is to educate the public about the harm caused when religious beliefs are used to promote and justify prejudice, discrimination and violence toward gay Americans with emphasis on the negative impact on youth. The goal of this education process is to end the advance of religion-based bigotry and prejudice toward gay citizens and to marginalize those groups or individuals who bring that harm to bear on good, decent and law-abiding Americans simply because of sexual orientation.

We have injected a new voice into the national dialogue on full and equal rights for gay Americans. No longer will the Tony Perkins, James Dobsons or Frank Tureks of the world be allowed to justify and promote attitudes of rejection, condemnation and violence with impunity.

No longer should gay and lesbian individuals have to hear themselves called sinners and unworthy by media spokespersons, elected officials, religious leaders, or any advertisements stemming from pro-LGBT initiatives.
It simply no longer can be acceptable or tolerated because of the immense emotional, psychological and spiritual violence it brings to bear on our families and communities, gay and straight.

We will not agree to disagree when it comes to young lives being wrecked.

Making people aware of that harm and helping them understand the pain is of course the reason Mitchell Gold, our founder, in Sept. 08 published the book "CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay In America" Crisis." (reviewed at this blog a few weeks ago) It is changing a heart and a mind of someone in America. CRISIS is perhaps the single, most effective educational tool that exists in the public discourse today when it comes to our message.

Almost daily, we receive a personal story from someone who has been impacted by Mitchell Gold's book. It is allowing parents, teachers, counselors, pastors and others to see the true face of the harm caused by religion-based bigotry and in doing so gives them the reason to move away from a position that promotes such harm.

We hope you'll join us in ensuring that more and more Americans in 2009 will come to see that the harm caused by religion-based bigotry and prejudice toward gay and lesbian Americans is indeed one of the greatest moral failures of our day.

Touching on one of my key concerns, Faith in America has demonstrated a willingness and established a track record of collaboration with other GLBT advocacy organizations to fulfill their common missions.

I encourage you to check out their website.