After fifteen years as a skinhead, TJ Leyden made the extraordinary move of leaving the neo-Nazi movement and going to work for the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles to teach tolerance.

IN 1995, TJ left the only life he knew - recruiting kids into the skinhead movement - to work for tolerance instead. He realized one day that his children were going to grow up to be just like him, and he wanted something better for them. So he got out. Though he receives regular death threats, he is not afraid to speak out to students and to help train law enforcement officials about how the message of hate is so easily spread today.

Speaking and educating is now TJ's full-time job by which he supports his wife and four children. He worked for more than five years for the Simon Weisenthal Center and only recently became an independent speaker and trainer.

TJ was invited by President Clinton to be a featured speaker at the White House Conference on Hate, and he contributed to the Blue Ribbon Panel on hate at the request of California Governor Gray Davis. He has trained professionals at the Pentagon, the FBI and American military bases. He has also spoken to more than 650,000 students.

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