To the City of Detroit and the World,

The Men's Human Rights Movement is a peaceful humanist civil rights movement, dedicated to compassion for men and boys. It is growing quickly due to support from people of every race, creed, color, gender, orientation, and ethnicity.

It has been subjected to vicious attacks by those who wish to silence people from talking about suicide, homelessness, education, poverty, domestic violence, sexual assault, and compassion for men who suffer from many of these problems at higher rates than most people realize--and who wish to do it free from vested outside interests and ideologies.

We are men and women, black and white, gay and straight, and we want to peacefully gather and talk.

Our global community is prepared to meet for the first time in a historic conference to take place in Detroit this June 26th-28th. The conference has been planned for nearly a year, and features many qualified and dynamic speakers from around the world.

Major figures such as Erin Pizzey, the originator of Domestic Violence shelter movement, Senator Anne Cools, founder of one of the first domestic violence refuges in North America and the first Canadian black female senator, are scheduled speakers.

Karen Straughan, a mother and blue collar worker, will also speak, as will Paul Nathanson, a gay advocate of Jewish heritage who writes passionately about the lives of men and boys.

Hundreds of people have booked flights and packed their bags, flying in from India, South America, Australia, Europe, and all over North America, eager to participate in a meeting of compassionate minds with the intent of finding solutions.

We should not be frightened to host a conference with diverse individuals to discuss social issues. If harassment and threats are allowed to continue, peaceful discourse becomes imperiled.

We need your help to make sure that the values of our Constitution, and basic human rights that should be afforded to all people, are protected.

Please allow our conference to continue without interference from ideologues who seek the destruction of our freedom.

We thank you for your attention.