Deplatforming LGBTQ Hate: Stopping Conversion Therapy Online

Wendy Via is an expert in achieving social justice change and influencing narratives and actions around some of the most pressing civil and human rights issues of our time, including the effects of extremism on our society, systemic racism, economic inequality, immigration, criminal justice reform, and LGBTQ rights. For the last two decades, she has successfully directed impact philanthropy initiatives, exposed hate and extremism in institutional systems, designed influential policy and advocacy campaigns, leveraged research, and highlighted storytelling to educate the public and create lasting change.

Prior to co-founding GPAHE, Wendy was the Chief Communications and Development Officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she led numerous teams. She also helped launch Justice for Migrant Women, dedicated to ensuring that migrant women can live and work with dignity and free from violence, and worked with Jeremiah Program, dedicated to disrupting generational poverty for single moms and their children. She holds a BA in Humanities from Auburn University, Montgomery.

Heidi Beirich is an expert on American and European extremist movements, including white supremacy, nativism, antisemitism and antigovernment movements. She earned a doctorate in political science from Purdue University in 1998 that specialized in European fascism and far-right movements. She holds M.A. degrees in political science and economics. She is author of numerous academic publications on extremism and co-edited Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction, published by the University of Texas Press in 2008.

Beirich is an oft-sought speaker at conferences devoted to battling hate and extremism. She has been interviewed by hundreds of publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, BBC, and others. She has appeared repeatedly on major television networks and in documentaries and radio programs exploring extremism. She has testified in Congress on issues related to white supremacy. Before co-founding the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, Beirich led the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, the premier organization tracking hate and antigovernment movements in the United States. 

As Vice President of Grants, Programs, and Communications at Horizons Foundation, Francisco Buchting oversees all of the foundation’s grantmaking, programmatic strategies, and communication activities. He also spearheads the Global Faith and Equality Fund – a 17 years spend down initiative funding at the intersection of Faith, LGBTI rights, and Reproductive Justice. Francisco brings to Horizons a background as a research scientist, a public health professional, and an experienced grantmaker.

His 25 plus years of experience in government, philanthropy, and nonprofit organizations include forming private-public partnerships, leading knowledge brokerage initiatives, and problem-solving through a mix of creative yet simple solutions with clear implementation and success metrics. Francisco’s career includes a bilingual clinical practice in behavioral medicine with a special focus on chronic diseases, co-authored a bimonthly newspaper column, written numerous research articles, and produced research reports. He has also served on numerous community-based organization boards and museum advisories.

Francisco, holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from Boston University, along with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and psychology from the University of California, Davis.