Government officials better think twice before they dare discriminate against atheists.
On Monday, we sent a letter to the commissioners of Porter County, Indiana, calling them out for bigotry against Northern Indiana Atheists (NIA), our 2019 Affiliate of the Year.
First, these public officials tried to exclude NIA from a local winter holiday festival. Then during a commissioners meeting, they tried to browbeat Troy Moss, NIA’s president and our Indiana State Director, as well as NIA’s vice president Daniel Dick.
“Go back to Michiana,” one of the commissioners told them. Another said he refused to “promote for [NIA] to be there” and lurched at Troy, barking, “Don’t come in here to cause trouble. Now I want you to leave.”
But after our letter threatening legal action if the commission continued to discriminate, they immediately backpedalled and granted NIA first dibs on a display location at the festival!
Northern Indiana Atheists is one of the many local groups that have benefited from the American Atheists Legal Center’s assistance.
Recently, Southern Maryland Area Secular Humanists (SMASH), another of our affiliates, held an event at a local library. After a Christian extremist burst into the event and screamed at the children in attendance, local police arrested him, charging him with 5 misdemeanors.
Yet commissioners took out $2,500 from the library’s budget in retaliation for hosting the event, compromising SMASH’s ability to organize there.
We immediately came to the defense of SMASH, warning that we “are prepared to seek judicial remedies for violation of their rights” and filing a records request. And we want to have the capacity to do that for all of our affiliates.
https://www.atheists.org/2019/11/northern-indiana-atheists-holly-days/
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