Looking back at American Atheists’ advocacy efforts over the last seven years, I can’t help but be inspired about what we have accomplished, even as we view the long road ahead to preserve our secular democracy. As the Vice President for Legal & Policy, I helped set our organization’s litigation strategy to support church-state separation in the courts, led American Atheists’ shift to focus on state legislative advocacy, and represented the organization to our many partners within the secular movement and beyond.
Now, as I leave American Atheists and begin a new role at the National Women’s Law Center, I’d like to reflect a bit on the progress our secular community has made over the last several years.
Having worked primarily in the LGBTQ movement prior to joining American Atheists, at first I was struck by how isolated the secular groups were, both from each other and from other movements with aligned goals. I committed to change that by building lines of communication with our secular partners and engaging with national coalitions focusing on reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, and other civil rights issues. We can’t hope to combat the stigma against atheists and nonreligious people in America without confronting the stigma that even well-meaning and aligned organizations have against our community, and the best way to do that is through allyship. Of course there have been challenges, but American Atheists is more connected today than ever before to our colleagues in other secular organizations, and we represent an atheist voice in national coalitions on critical issues, from abortion access to voting rights.
Another area where I noticed the secular movement lagged behind other civil rights movements is data collection about atheists and nonreligious people: who we are, what we care about, and the issues we face because of our nonreligious identities.
When I was working in the LGBTQ movement, one of my major focuses was increasing federal data collection in order to understand the health, educational, workplace, and other disparities that LGBTQ people face.
Without such information, how can we know which issues most negatively impact us as a community, and how can we prove to lawmakers and others that our anecdotal stories of discrimination represent a wider trend?
That is why American Atheists conducted the groundbreaking U.S. Secular Survey in 2019. We united the secular movement to conduct a scientific survey of nearly 34,000 atheists and nonreligious people across the country so that we could gather this critical data for the first time about ourselves and our community. We published this data in the Reality Check report in 2020 (secularsurvey.org), then we partnered with fantastic secular organizations to create four subpopulation briefs focusing on Black nonreligious people, nonreligious youth, nonreligious women, and nonreligious LGBTQ people.
Since then, we’ve used this vital data in court briefs, the media, and lawmakers’ offices to advance equality for atheists and nonreligious people.
When I started with American Atheists in 2018, I found that several national secular organizations were engaged in advocacy at the federal level, but there was little support for advocacy at the state level. And while there were state and local secular organizations all across the country, many did not engage in advocacy, and others were left with little assistance or direction.
That is why American Atheists decided to shift its agenda, moving away from federal advocacy and instead building resources to support state and local advocates across the country.
First, we published the State of the Secular States Report (atheists.org/states), an assessment of the positive and negative laws and policies affecting church-state separation and religious equality in every state. This is essential because it creates a benchmark for state law and provides a roadmap that advocates can use to identify and work toward better laws in their states. In January 2025, American Atheists will publish the seventh edition of this critical state advocacy resource.
While much of our state legislative work has focused on stopping negative bills that undermine civil rights and religious equality—and there have been many such bills over the last few years—it is not enough for us to merely oppose bad legislation. That will not achieve the world we seek to realize, one where civil rights, religious equality, and the separation of religion and government are respected. Instead, we must advance positive policies that bring us closer to that vision.
That is why American Atheists has developed and advocated for innovative legislation to protect religious equality and reduce the harms caused by violations of church-state separation. For example, we worked with sponsors in Colorado to pass the Patients’ Right to Know Act, which requires hospitals to disclose to patients when they refuse to offer various types of care for non-medical reasons, including religious opposition to abortion, contraception, or LGBTQ care. And in states like Minnesota, we are supporting new recovery options legislation that would prevent the state from mandating religious substance use disorder treatment, which has a disproportionate impact on atheists and nonreligious people.
We have also had some impressive litigation victories over the last seven years. Just to name a few, we prevailed over Arkansas state senator and avowed Christian nationalist Jason Rapert after he disrupted the free speech of his atheist constituents. We achieved a significant settlement for a family after their young, developmentally disabled child was forcibly baptized under false pretenses, resulting in long-lasting trauma. And more recently, we achieved a terrific victory for Andrew Miller, whom the West Virginia prison system refused to parole until he participated in extremely religious substance use disorder treatment that conflicted with his beliefs as an atheist. Not only is Andrew now out of prison, but the West Virginia prison system was required to adopt new policies, and the federal agency responsible for funding this program made clear that their grants may not be used for religious 12-step programs.
Despite these and many other victories, we cannot deny that the federal courts have become more and more stacked with religiously biased ideologues. The current U.S. Supreme Court has flipped the very essence of the First Amendment on its head, declaring that Free Exercise mandates government funding for religious schools and organizations and effectively tearing the Establishment Clause out of the Constitution. That is why American Atheists has been a strong supporter of court reform, including expansion of the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the critical issue of our time. If we cannot reform the Supreme Court then all our rights, all the issues we care about, and our democracy itself are at risk. And those are the issues I will be working on full time as the Director of Nominations and Democracy at National Women’s Law Center.
I will always be grateful to have played a part in the success of American Atheists and the progress we have made to protect the civil rights of atheists and the separation of religion and government. I thank the staff, board, members, volunteers, and contributors of American Atheists for supporting our critical work. And I thank our president, Nick Fish, for entertaining my crazy ideas when I said, “We need more data!” or, “Let’s work in all 50 states at once!”
Despite leaving American Atheists, I will certainly continue to be a member of the organization and supporter of secularism through my advocacy. Together, let’s keep working to achieve a world where we can all live without religiously based stigma and discrimination.