February 9, 2022
Hi Prairie State Humanists,
Thank you for your very generous $300 donation to the Center for Freethought Equality in January - you make our work possible!
As you know, the Center for Freethought Equality Center is the political and advocacy arm of the American Humanist Association. Your support allows the Center for Freethought Equality to have an active national advocacy program to provide a voice for the atheist and humanist community and advance the issues that are important to us.
In January, our Director of Policy and Social Justice, Rachel Deitch, joined a week of action in support of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would ensure that taxpayer funded child welfare organizations, including foster care agencies, cannot discriminate against qualified potential parents on the basis of religion. Our effort was hugely successful, bringing on 35 new cosponsors in one week. I encourage you and your members to use our Humanist Action Headquarters to make your voice heard on Capitol Hill.
In addition, we were recently accepted into a new coalition, the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition. It's mission is simple: "We believe our democratic systems, institutions, and leaders must reflect, represent, and respect the diverse, multicultural nation that we are and have always been. For democracy to work for all of us, it must include all of us and address the deep systemic, institutional challenges that continue to block meaningful progress to this day. As America's diversity continues to grow, so must our democracy." Learn more by visiting the coalition's website.
Rachel also joined our atheist and humanist coalition partners in January for a planning meeting with the Congressional Freethought Caucus to discuss the Caucus's 2022 goals and how the secular community can help the Caucus achieve them.
Each month we publish an article on an atheist and humanist elected official. January's spotlight by Sarah Levin, a consultant with the Center for Freethought Equality, is Billings (MT) City Council member Danny Choriki who is a humanist and is a board member of the Association of Secular Elected Officials. When asked about how his nonreligious worldview affects his public service, Choriki responded, "Living in a red state that is deeply influenced by religious and political ideology, it is very important to me that we both defend and promote humanist values.” You can see all of Sarah's profiles here.
We now have 90 public nontheist elected officials serving in 30 states across the country. Our political action committee, the Freethought Equality Fund, will continue its efforts to expand the number of public atheist and humanist elected officials. You can see our initial endorsements for 2022 here.
Last, we are very pleased to co-sponsored with the Association of Secular Elected Officials virtual presentations on how to increase the engagement of the atheist and humanist community in the political and electoral arena. You can see one of our presentations here. If you would like us to speak to your group please email me.
Thank you for your support to help build our visibility, politically empower the atheist and humanist community, and create a safer, saner, stronger secular America!
-Ron
Ron Millar, Political and PAC Coordinator, Center for Freethought Equality, www.cfequality.org, 1821 Jefferson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202-238-9088 ext. 201
pronouns: he/him/his (what's this?)
