have emphasized the healing power of prayer, believing that God can respond to prayers through medicine and science, and would lead prayers for a medical solution to AIDS. Williamson has said that at that time, when the medical industry had no cure or treatment for the diseasecontracting it "was a death sentence"and there was a "weird silence" from organized religion, gay men came to her because she was "talking about a God who loves you no matter what and miracles." She credits gay men in Los Angeles for her career, saying that they were living through a traumatic experience, dealing with the stress of guilt, shame, dying, and, in many cases, telling unsupportive family, and that they began coming to her lectures because, "I was talking every week about how love worked miracles and how, as long as we loved each other, everything was going to be ok." Her view of healingof prayer and medicinehas been called unscientific, but also regarded as no different than the viewpoint of other religions. The Peace Alliance In 1998 Williamson co-founded the non-profit Global Renaissance Alliance (GSA) with Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch. The organization established a network of "citizen salons" to pray for national growth, peace and liberal causes. According to Williamson, the GSA sat in small groups, "Peace Circles", of fewer than 12 people every other week and prayed together to articulate a vision for what they want, rather than what others don't want. In 2004 the GSA's name was changed to The Peace Alliance and given a new mandate focused on grassroots education and advocacy organization with the intent of increasing U.S. government support for peace-building approaches to domestic and international conflicts. The Peace Alliance taught peace activists how to lobby their congressional representatives. Williamson said of the need for this work: The Peace Alliance seeks the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace. In 2005 Williamson traveled to Washington to help Congressman Dennis Kucinich's effort to establish the department. The Alliance has raised over $100 million in funding for international peace-building. It has also helped get provisions of the Youth PROMISE Act, embedded in the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed into law. The California Democratic Party adopted key Peace Alliance priorities into its platform. "Sister Giant" conferences In 2010 Williamson launched "Sister Giant", a series of conferences to "start a new conversation about transformational politics" and encourage more