Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
This is a guest post by Todd Stiefel. He is the President and founder of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. … I write today regarding an important and timely topic. I have read an enormous volume of dialogue online about how to make skeptic/freethought conferences safer and more welcoming, especially for women. There is a call for all conferences to have anti-harassment policies in place, mostly to address sexual harassment. I agree and feel we need policies to discourage such behavior… Read more
I saw this article by Mark Mellman in The Hill got very excited. It references how Obama can win a greater percentage of the atheist vote: Atheists are alienated. Four years ago, they saw an erudite former law professor from an elite university and assumed he must be one of them. Moreover, he was running in the wake of a Republican who constantly injected his religious beliefs into the public dialogue. For obvious reasons, Romney is downplaying his religiosity, while… Read more
There’s a beautiful story at the Chattanooga Times Free Press by Joan Garrett about a Southern Baptist minister/father, his dying gay son, and the church that got in their way: Matt thought about the stories his son had told him in the hospital that weekend — stories of friends turned out of their families and churches, stories about bullying by people who knew their secret, stories of double lives and failed marriages — he couldn’t help but wonder who would… Read more
Lucas Black also summarizes which parents are ideal and which are bad in the eyes of conservative Christians: GOOD: A straight man and woman. A homosexual man and homosexual woman. A bisexual woman and bisexual man. A homosexual man and a straight woman. A homosexual woman and a straight man. A bisexual man and a homosexual woman. A bisexual woman and a homosexual man. A hermaphrodite. Fred & Rosemary West. Pre-op transvestite….? BAD: Straight single parent. Homosexual single parent. Bisexual… Read more