Ann Pellegrini is professor of performance studies and religious studies at New York University, where she also directs NYU's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. She has written extensively about religion, sexuality, and U.S. public life. Her publications include Performance Anxieties and the coauthored book Love the Sin (Beacon Press, 2004).
So why do many LGBT people, and others, feel so deeply about the need to have them?