JAY MICHAELSON, PhD, is a scholar, activist, practicing Buddhist, and teacher of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah). He has written extensively on meditation, religion, sexuality, and law. Associate editor of Religion Dispatches magazine and contributing editor to the Forward newspaper, he is a frequent contributor to the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post, Reality Sandwich, Salon, and Tikkun magazine. His work has also been featured on CNN, NPR, and in the New York Times. A longtime LGBT activist who teaches regularly for national LGBT organizations like GLAAD, he is also the founder of Nehirim, a national LGBT Jewish community.