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PRESS RELEASE -- And Justice for All
Contact: David King, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 298-9362
Internet: justice@clark.net
America Online: AndJst4All@aol.com
Address: P.O. Box 53079
Washington, D.C. 20009
WWW: http://www.vive.com/connect/aja/home.htm
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WASHINGTON, DC -- Dr. Mel White, who made national headlines last February during his 22-day prison fast in Virginia Beach City Jail protesting the Reverend Pat Robertson's anti-gay messages, has agreed to join the Advisory Board of And Justice for All (AJA).
AJA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to achieving equality for bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered (b/g/l/t) people by mobilizing heterosexual allies in the fight for social justice.
Dr. White joins Advisory Board co-chairs Rev. Meg Riley and Don Davis in a standard one-year term in which he will counsel the AJA on major policy decisions. As the national Minister for Justice for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, Dr. White represents the denomination's 300 churches as a full-time volunteer in the nationwide struggle for equality.
"We're very pleased to have an activist of Dr. White's stature and experience on our Advisory Board," said Executive Director Jonathan Zucker. " We hope that his extensive background in coalition building will aid us as we reach out to new allies."
A former ghost writer for such Evangelical Christian leaders as Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Dr. White came out publicly as a gay man at his installation as Dean of the Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan Community Church in Dallas, Texas. For the last three years, Dr. White, and his partner, Gary Nixon, have traveled across the country speaking, organizing, lobbying and confronting extremists.
Central to Dr. White's philosophy is his belief in nonviolent resistance, as exemplified in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Across this country, our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered brothers and sisters are victims of a tidal wave of intolerance, discrimination and violent crime flowing directly out of the anti-gay rhetoric and political actions of the radical right." said Dr. White. "I support And Justice for All's work to include everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, in the right to live freely and without discrimination, and look forward to working with the organization."
Dr. White's best-selling 1994 autobiography, "Stranger at the Gate: To be Gay and Christian in America," is his exhortation to bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered people to come out of the closet and confront the misleading rhetoric of the radical right. Currently, Dr. White is writing the book's sequel, "Storming the Gate: A Gay Christian Discovers Soul Force," his analysis of the nonviolent principles of Gandhi and King and their worth as principals for the future of the b/g/l/t movement.
"Until this nation accepts God's bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered children as full members of the human family," White explains, "we must go on telling the truth in love, whatever it might cost us."
And Justice for All seeks bisexual, gay, lesbian, straight and transgendered activists with experience in coalition building, membership recruitment and fundraising for its advisory board. Interested parties should contact the organization at (202) 298-9362.
