Secular Woman | Amplifying the voice, presence, and influence of non-religious women

2013-10-112019-10-05 Secular Woman Article

Secular Woman Membership Awards

Secular Woman would like to recognize individuals through our awards program who have shown their commitment to embracing and living the mission and values of our organization. We believe that the secular community thrives on the passion of people who enthusiastically contribute through their activism. The winners were chosen by a board vote from a pool of nominations submitted by our membership, with the exception of the President’s Award given directly by our president Kim Rippere.

Woman of the Year
Sikivu Hutchinson
Sikivu Hutchinson was chosen as Woman of the year due to her being a radical humanist activist, educator, and writer who advocates for social justice within academic and atheist movement circles, while putting her theories into practice in her own community of Los Angeles. She is a beacon for secular women throughout the world. In 2013 she released her latest book: Godless Americana: Race & Religious Rebels.

She is an editor at blackfemlens.org and freethoughtblogs.com/blackskeptics/ She can also be found through her own website www.sikivuhutchinson.com and through the organization www.blackskepticsla.org. Also, be sure to check out her previous book, Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars. Sikivu is also involved in the Women’s Leadership Project which is is a feminist service learning program designed to educate and train young middle and high school age women in South Los Angeles to take ownership of their school-communities.

Man of the Year
Crommunist
This award was given to Crommunist for his staunch, unwavering, vocal support of feminism, atheism, and social justice via his blog, twitter, and comments throughout the secular blogosphere. Crommunist supports the voices of women and works hard to educate those who tend to silence through maintaining the status quo.
Ian Cromwell (a.k.a. 'Crommunist') is a health researcher, musician, and blogger from Vancouver, Canada. Crommunist's chief area of interest is examining the relationships between religion, patriarchy, and white supremacy as a set of interconnected oppressive systems, and he explores the ways in which using the tools of skepticism can be used to understand the ways in which these systems operate. After spending 2 years at Freethought Blogs, Crommunist has returned to writing at his own platform at crommunist.com.

Activist of the Year
Soraya Chemaly
Soraya's action this year taking on gender-based hate speech on Facebook was mindblowing. Very quickly she was able to gather huge worldwide interest, take action, and come out successful. Due to her diligence Facebook released a statement regarding an overview and change of their hate/harmful speech policies. Soraya fights for women's rights, via her writing, being extremely active and effective with social media, and participating in conferences.
You can find Soraya writing for various outlets such as the Huffington Post, Salon, and AlterNet. She is also active in social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr.

Blog of the Year
Almost Diamonds
Stephanie Zvan makes her voice heard through her blog Almost Diamonds. Her writing is consistently incredible: insightful, thorough, on point, and funny (when appropriate). Everything she writes is from an atheist, secular, intersectional feminist, and social justice perspective. This year has certainly been a busy one for social justice in the secular community. Stephanie’s posts tackle issues from multiple perspectives deconstructing and analyzing varied subject matter; her methodological and precise writing is educational, informative, and engaging.

Stephanie is a writer and analyst living in Minneapolis. She is the associate president of Minnesota Atheists and co-host of their radio show, Atheists Talk. As far as she knows, she's always been a feminist.

Member of the Year
Renée Perry
Renée has participated in so many ways in the growth and development of Secular Woman. She has been an integral part of helping with our 501c3 application which will be felt for years to come in SW being established as a non-profit organization. Renée also provides a consistent voice in our Members Only discussion group and adds much wisdom to the conversation. In addition she has helped to craft the guidelines for that group.

Renée Perry is Director of Operations for Equality Federation, whose members are state-based LGBT advocacy organizations. Renée has been an atheist since she was 16 and became a skeptic through reading Martin Gardiner.

President’s Award
Mary Ellen Sikes
Mary Ellen has been a quiet force in the secular movement for decades. As one of the founders of Secular Woman Mary Ellen helped to launch an incredible website; a large, detailed membership database; and a well thought out mission, vision, and value statements. She was integral to the formation of SW in every way and continues to be a consistent advisor to SW and other secular groups. Mary Ellen is the definition of the unsung hero.

In addition to her work with Secular Woman, Mary Ellen was an ACLU litigant in a lawsuit involving tax bonds benefiting a Christian school that openly discriminates in hiring. She founded Central Virginia Secular Humanists and led the group for six years beginning in 1995 and, in addition, served as Vice President and President of the Washington Area Secular Humanists. She’s been an advisory board member to American United for Separation of Church and State since early 2000s. She has lent her incredible technology skills to Institute for Humanist Studies, Secular Coalition for America, and the Secular Student Alliance. Currently she is the president, founder and sole developer of the American Secular Census, the independent national registry of demographic and viewpoint data recorded by secular Americans.

Awards and photos of awards by Amy Davis Roth.

2013-09-26 Secular Woman Interviews

“I refuse to grow older and become boring”: an Interview with Explorer Barbara Hillary

Explorer Barbara Hillary became the first African American woman to reach the North Pole––at the age of 75. At 79 she reached the South Pole. Now 82, Hillary will speak at the American Atheists’ 2014 convention; she took the time to speak to SW about religion in the black community, adventure, and how she has remained young at heart.

SW: How did you became an atheist?

BH: It was a progression. Most blacks are programmed in the womb <laughs> with the black mother taking nutrients for the baby in the form of the Bible. My parents came from the South––my father died when I was 2––and I was forced to go to Sunday school at our African Methodist Episcopalian church. I was a good young black kid, put on my patent leather shoes on Sunday and went to Sunday School. I once asked my mother, “Why are there no black angels?” She just shook her head.

I joined the Episcopal Church and as I grew older I started thinking more and questioning more. I had to give myself a series of mental enemas. Mental conditioning is one of the most powerful tools that exists in the world. Conditioning of children, especially. By the time they reach a certain point in life their minds are like granite on certain issues.

I guess you’d call me an atheist. I’ve reached a very satisfying point in my mental development. I’ve reached a point of tremendous and refreshing personal freedom. I’m not concerned about labels for myself right now. I’m concerned about being able to continue to question and within that framework, continue to grow, because I consider growth and reaching for maturity a never-ending process.

The black experience has made Christianity a greater shackle than the slaves knew in the slaveship. Christianity is the perpetual shackle that rapes the black mind. But from slavery forward the systematic, psychological programming of the black mind was very clever, very smart, and it has been very destructive––and destructive is an understatement. Numerically there were more blacks in most southern states than whites, so one of the first things that had to be done was to capture and control the mind. To my knowledge not one black person came here a Christian. They had to, now, give blacks a new concept: that your God is white, your master’s white, and you really don’t count, and if you don’t like it here, just wait for heaven. It was forced Christianity, which meant they beat the shit out of you until you went to church. The Christian church was the first segregated institution in America. The white slave owner sat upstairs in the church and the slaves sat downstairs.

The first authority figure in a child’s life is the mother. She reinforces the submission, drags the child to the Christian slave church, and from that point on it is firmly entrenched.

I ask my friends why they believe in God, and they say, “I believe because I believe.” I ask, “Who taught you?” They say, “My mother.” I ask, “Well who taught her?” They cannot accept that originally it was the slavemaster. They just wipe that part out. So now you have a whole race of people bogged down in religion. Now, you have to have a lieutenant. The white slavemaster couldn't control all those slaves effectively, so we got the black clergyman–the lieutenant of racism.

Generation after generation it continued, and by now, for women in my age bracket it is inconceivable that there’s no white Jesus Christ. On Sunday mornings you have millions of dollars going into the pockets of this exclusive group of black clergy who live like kings. And you are so programmed that you cannot think beyond, “Massa is gonna provide.” Everything must come from this white benevolent person–even Santa Claus!

SW: What made you want to take on this expedition to the North Pole? Why now?

BH: When I retired I was looking around for something different to do, something unusual. Usually what comes up is a cruise. I couldn’t deal with that. There’s nothing more boring than the average married people. The only thing worse than that is grandparents. The thought of being stuck on a ship with these people–and I couldn’t swim–wasn’t bearable. Instead, I thought of photographing polar bears and I went up to Manitoba and I met a different type of freethinking person––people who have interests in life besides the last bad relationship. I just fell in love with it, the adventure, the touch of danger; I liked seeing an animal that could break through a 3-foot solid block of ice with one swipe. I learned dog mushing and snowmobiling and as a natural progression I learned there was no black woman who had reached the North Pole and I decided to do it. It wasn’t that easy. The hell begins when you first make up your mind you’re really going to do it. It hits you, a thousand things come out of the woodwork, and you say to yourself, do I really want to do this?

SW: What advice would you give to senior citizens who want to get the most out of their lives?

BH: I refuse to grow older and become boring to myself and others. Preparation for healthy aging starts when you’re young: if you squander your life with poor choices, living for other people; if you do not realize the most important word in the human vocabulary, No… learn to say no. I don’t care if it’s to a relative, a loved one, a child, if you can’t say it and feel comfortable you’re going to take problems into your older years and suffer from bad-ass choices.

When I do public speaking I tell my audiences, and I’ve spoken to 2500 people at one time, this is what I do. Perhaps you’d like to try it. I don’t tell anyone what I do. This is what worked for me. Because one of the main reasons marriages don’t work is that people go into marriages thinking they’re going to change somebody. There’s not a mother fucker in this world you can change unless they want to change.

SW: Where would you like to see the secular movement focus, in terms of outreach and activism?

BH: If you start at schools, universities, those girls and boys who become parents are now freethinking, humanists, atheists, questioning, encouraging to children to start turning their mental wheels, that may crush the cycle of granite-like thought process. I readily seek a university where leaders and real thinkers come together. Not the professors who go from meeting to meeting and are so insulated. We need schools and secondary schools and colleges where we have our own thinkers. I’ve seen people traumatized by Christianity. Not everyone has the strength to say “This is stupid and not logical,” because they’re comfortable with acceptance. To most black women my age I’m a demon, or crazy. We have to get people involved at a younger age, and they can help and remove the barriers toward becoming better world.

2013-09-222015-04-21 Secular Woman Article

Secular Student Alliance’s Plan to Support Atheists in Need

Secular Student Alliance has begun a campaign to raise money to create a Rapid Response Organizer position within its organization. Part organizer, part crisis manager, part mediator, and part journalist, the Rapid Response Organizer (RRO) will travel anywhere in the country on short notice to support and aid secular students speaking out against unconstitutional religious infringement on their rights. "Too many secular students are facing their battles alone,” says SSA communications director Jesse Galef. “For every Jessica Ahlquist who comes to the secular community's attention and gets our support, ten more brave students feel isolated. We need a rapid response organizer to connect those students with the larger community and inspire others to stand up for secular values. There are hundreds of supporters waiting to help––but they can only take action if they know who needs it and how."

Secular Woman is excited about this campaign and happy to see SSA grow its resources for supporting secular students who need to know that the movement stands with them.

“Secular Woman and Secular Student Alliance have an ongoing strategic partnership because both organizations have a mission-driven interest in protecting our youth and young adults,” says SW president Kim Rippere. “The RRO will be a vital component of outreach, support, and connection.”

The Rapid Response organizer will connect students with relevant organizations and support who can help them and work on the ground with students, available to them for questions, concerns, and solidarity. The RRO will also be serve as a crisis manager to help students whose freedom from religion is being undermined and who may be suffering backlash from their communities, their schools, or even their families. Finally, the RRO will be a journalist for the secular movement, documenting instances of establishment violation and sharing this documentation with the wider media. To learn more about the position and make a donation, visit the campaign site.

2013-09-12 Secular Woman Interviews

Sikivu Hutchinson on Radical Humanism, Race, and Gender

Black NonBelievers (Mandisa Thomas, President) and Judith Moore recently sponsored an event in Atlanta where Sikivu Huchinson spoke on atheism, race, gender, and a plethora of additional cultural and historical influences that shape our society. The talk was a well integrated and an astoundingly complex weaving of the everyday, the academic, and the lived experiences of people of color as they related to religion, non-belief, education, humanism, prison, and more. Kim Rippere had the pleasure of attending, meeting Sikivu and others, enjoying the post event dinner, and asking Sikivu a few follow up questions:

SW: You said the established secular organizations are fetishistically attached to the separation of church of state. What is your understanding of how this limits the movement both in terms of membership and impact?

SH: Focusing on the separation of church and state limits the range of issues and communities that the “movement” can effectively address. For example, one of the major factors in religious allegiance in communities of color is economic injustice driven by capitalist disparities in access to wealth, jobs, education and housing. If there is no engagement with how economic injustice and capitalist exploitation shape hyper-religiosity in communities of color, then humanist/atheist critiques will be irrelevant for the majority of people of color.

The domino effect of de facto segregation, job discrimination, unemployment, foreclosure, mass incarceration, and educational apartheid has bolstered the influence of religious institutions in many black and Latino neighborhoods where storefront churches line every block. Certainly the experience of surviving racism and racial terrorism has greatly affirmed the role of religious observance in the lives of many African Americans. For example, in the absence of equitable government programs, the Black Church has traditionally been a social welfare resource in African American communities. Social welfare programs such as funding assistance to poor families, food supplies, housing and utilities services, prisoner reentry programs, and day care provision are among the many resources that community-based churches offer… By contrast, relatively low levels of religiosity in Western Europe correlate with the fact that citizens of these countries enjoy a comprehensive social welfare safety net.

On average, Western European health care, child care, unemployment compensation, job security, job benefits, and affordable housing subsidies provide a far higher quality of life and standard of living than that in the U.S. Western European cities generally offer more accessible pedestrian and recreational green space than the car dominated sprawl of most American cities. Miles of undeveloped brown zones and vacant lots are symptomatic of dead commercial development and so-called “park poor” urban neighborhoods of color. In South Los Angeles there are multiple storefront churches for every park. In predominantly white West Los Angeles storefront churches don’t exist and the parks are the most richly appointed and resourced in the city. As in most arenas, racial politics and segregation determine available park space in the U.S. Having the ability to use a clean, safe, accessible park is a luxury that white middle class families take for granted.

SW: Additionally, you stated that this attachment will drive these organizations the way of the GOP and the dodo. Why is intersectionality the growth standpoint and demographic?

SH: We’ve seen numerous instances where a focus on the supposed “ultimate” outsider status of atheists has become a rallying cry for white New Atheists who are staggeringly ignorant of their privilege in a white supremacist culture. I work in school-communities where atheist and agnostic youth of color are disenfranchised not only by their atheism but by criminalization, low academic expectations, lack of college preparation, sexual harassment and homophobic/hetero-normative policing, to name but a few.

This environment severely limits their life prospects and opportunities. Yet, with all of the lip service given to “critical thinking” in the movement there is zero attention to the devastating impact prison pipe-lining has on preventing youth of color from having basic access to college preparation, advanced placement classes (so-called inner city schools have fewer AP math and science classes than do more affluent, predominantly white schools), financial aid and mentoring resources. There is no attention to the narrowing of curriculum caused by high stakes testing, “charterization” and the neo-liberal corporate agenda (brought to you by the Obama administration and billionaire philanthropist allies like the Gates, Walmart and Broad foundations) to gut public education.

As a result of this regime many high school students simply don’t know how to construct a coherent essay, place contemporary events in historical context and analyze texts based on critical literacy. This, and racist/sexist low expectations of teachers and administrators towards students of color, are the primary reasons why so few black and Latino youth go into STEM fields.

However, the movement isn’t focused on these intersectional issues because they don’t directly affect middle class white children. Conversely, progressive atheists of color are interested in building institutions that support culturally responsive humanist curricula, instruction and youth leadership development programs which will facilitate college access, activism and critical literacy amongst youth of color.

SW: One of the concepts you addressed was the secular community’s fascination with charismatic men as leaders and how this mirrors religious culture. What do you see as the negative aspects of this continued patriarchal cultural outcome?

SH: Part of the global success of New Atheism has been best-selling white atheist rock star authors and the popularization of cults of personality like the Four Horsemen. Unfortunately this kind of idolatry has eclipsed recognition of and attention to the ground work being laid by grassroots humanist organizations in their local communities.

SW: What do you see are some concrete steps that secular social justice individuals and organizations can take to increase the diversity of voices that are seen as secular leaders?

SH: Progressive atheists organize around issues that go far beyond the usual church/state separation and “science and reason” agenda. You can’t fight for economic justice in communities of color without advocating for reproductive justice, unrestricted abortion rights and access to universal health care. You can’t preach “equality” of genders without redressing the heterosexist lack of representation of queer and trans people of color in K-12 curricula. You can’t advocate for LGBTQQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning) enfranchisement without confronting all of the mechanisms that criminalize queer and trans youth of color and make them at greater risk for being incarcerated, placed in foster care and/or becoming homeless.

Coalitions that form around these intersectional issues should be actively promoted—especially those that cultivate ties with progressive believers and non-atheist secular community-based organizations. Further, non-believers who write about and organize around these issues should be tapped for leadership positions in humanist and atheist organizations. There are currently little to no people of color in executive management positions in the major secular/humanist/atheist organizations (i.e., CFI, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, etc.). As a result, it is precisely because of the lack of culturally responsive humanist organizations and institutions that the vast majority of non-believers of color do not feel comfortable openly identifying as atheist.

Where are the humanist institutions that support the realities of our lived experiences in a “Christian nation” based on capitalist, racist, sexist, heterosexist class power? When atheism is primarily associated with academic elites patronizingly condemning believers as primitive and backward—while systematically profiting from racial segregation and straight white male privilege—then many people of color will see no compelling reason to ally with atheist causes and organizations by coughing up hundreds of dollars to attend navel-gazing conferences.

SW: You talked about the Christian fascists and their agenda to undermine progressive efforts for social justice. What are your thoughts about those within the secular movement that are opposed to involvement in social justice issues?

SH: Again, the absence of historical and sociological context in atheist politics, and its disconnection from social justice activism, will keep it in the lily white 1 percent column. In my book Moral Combat I address the lived experiences of some of the most religious communities on the planet in one of the richest nations on the planet. What is the sociological context for faith traditions and hyper-religiosity in American communities of color? I say, come to Los Angeles, to Milwaukee, Oakland, Baltimore or Newark where brilliant students of color are disproportionately denied access to college prep courses, suspended, placed in special education and pipelined into prisons instead of being given a decent shot at a science and humanities-based education.

These are not conditions that confront white families and white children—atheist, evangelical, working class, middle class or otherwise. Brilliant white youth who want to be oncologists, like my former student Karly Jeter, who identifies as Christian, are not told that they come from a dysfunctional culture that only excels at sports and making babies. They are also not included from gatekeeping Advanced Placement science courses because their counselors didn’t believe they were capable or the classes weren’t offered on their campuses.

Because of the pervasiveness of 21st century-style mass incarceration many youth of color will not be able to get jobs or housing. They will not be able to vote or pursue a college education. For this generation the promise of upward mobility and the American dream is a sham. Progressive community-based religious organizations grasp the complexities of this reality. The best ones actively seek to redress it. And that is where the gap between the so-called New Atheism and radical or culturally relevant humanism lies.

SW: Can you explain what you mean by “radical humanism?”

SH: Radical humanism holds that religious hierarchies of race, gender, sexuality, and class are harmful to universal human rights and the self-determination of oppressed peoples. Radical humanism in communities of color seeks to allow people of color cultural legitimacy, visibility, and self-determination in the midst of a system that privileges whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, cis-gendered and able-bodied status as the universal norms upon which all human potential is implicitly based on and judged by.

Radical humanism recognizes the inalienable human rights of all people to an equitable education, shelter, food, affordable health care, a clean, violence-free environment and a living wage job. It recognizes women’s inalienable right to self-determination vis-à-vis reproductive choice, abortion and family planning free of state/religious intervention, authority and control.

It recognizes the inherent morality of love between consenting adults of all sexual orientations and genders as well as the primacy of LGBTQQ identities, families, children and communities in a dominant culture that indoctrinates hetero-normativity and heterosexism as modes of power, authority and control.

2013-09-102015-04-23 Secular Woman Interviews

“Is this some kind of post-Apocalyptic, dystopian free for all?” A Conversation With Zinnia Jones

A well-known writer and videoblogger with a focus on LGBTQ rights and secularism, Zinnia Jones was on CNN last month to discuss Chelsea Manning’s need for––and right to––transition care while in prison. She joined Secular Woman as a member this month and took time to talk with Julia Burke about Manning’s case and what it’s taught us about mainstream misconceptions about the trans* community, as well as misconceptions about the rights of inmates. She also discussed her path to atheism, the most common misunderstandings she encounters regarding trans* people, and what she’d like to see for the secular movement.

SW: The media coverage of Chelsea Manning’s case has brought to light so much transphobia and general ignorance in our culture. What has it been like, speaking to the media on behalf of the trans* community as this story unfolds, and what can those who want to be allies do to help?

ZJ: Well there has been so much incomprehension that it’s really made clear to me that so many people in mainstream culture have no idea of what it means to be trans*, what it’s like to be trans*, really what any of these things even are––any treatments, the importance of access to care, anything like that. So in many ways I’ve been explaining this from scratch to people who are largely clueless, and it’s almost insulting sometimes because it makes me feel like I have to explain our basic humanity, and that we require treatment like anyone else, we’re entitled to care in prison like anyone else, we’re entitled to our own genders like anyone else.

So it’s been difficult at times, trying to convey this in a way that’s understandable and in a way that brings people up to speed on this, on what should be basic issues of humanity and how being trans* is being understood, when they’re so far behind on all this and completely outside of it.

It’s important to be informed on this. It’s important to know the basics on this: things like the established standards of care for transitioning, things like position statements by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and other medical authorities on how transitioning is the only treatment, it’s a necessary treatment, and it’s an effective treatment. It would also be important to get up to speed on the case law surrounding this. In civilian courts it’s repeatedly been established that access to hormone therapy, for instance, is something trans* people in prison cannot be deprived of without it constituting cruel and unusual punishment. There have been rulings on this pertaining to surgeries as well. So knowing the precedent on that would be helpful, and really just basic things about access to care in prisons for trans* people––and really, for everyone.

When I talk to people about this they seem to be under the impression that no one in prison should be entitled to any medical care at all. And it’s like, what exactly do you think happens in prisons? Is this some kind of post-Apocalyptic, dystopian free for all? The government becomes responsible for caring for people it incarcerates. That includes medical care. Transitioning is necessary care according to medical authorities, ergo, transitioning is part of the care the government must provide. It’s very important for people to understand that transition care is crucial and necessary and not some sort of luxury that can be omitted. That’s the angle that people really need to internalize here. This should be provided––yes, at taxpayer expense, like everything else in prisons. If [this taxpayer expense issue] is a concern for you, you might want to start worrying about how many people this country incarcerates in general, for goodness sake.

The way that they play this up in the media, too, seems so uninformed. Being a trans woman sitting in the studio, having someone on CNN tell me this treatment costs a hundred dollars a month when the government pays for it––it costs $13 a month when I pay for it, without any discounts or deal. The ignorance as though it’s authoritative, when speaking to someone who actually knows about this, is what makes it really important to actually listen to trans* people first rather than people promoting their own misconceptions and then having trans* people come on to correct them after the fact.

SW: How would you characterize understanding of these issues in the secular movement, specifically?

ZJ: While some people are uninformed about it, there’s really not so much overt hostility. Once you tell them what it’s all about they understand and they’re willing to listen. People in general in the secular community show a willingness to learn, especially when presented with the facts on this. And that is something to our advantage: the science is incredibly clear, the facts are incredibly clear. And the secular community is largely familiar with facing that mindset of actually showing someone facts, and either they accept them or they dig in and reject them.

SW: How would you describe the way women are welcomed––or not––in the atheist/secular community, both online and in real life?

ZJ: Personally this isn’t something I’ve had much experience with, as opposed to other big-name women in the movement who have had much more experience, largely because they’re the ones who have been targets of such vicious and repeated attacks. I almost get the feeling I’m omitted from that not only because I haven’t been as outspoken about harassment but also because to all the people getting on their case I may seem to be new at being a woman.

SW: Can you tell us the story of how you became an atheist?

ZJ: That was a pretty early-on thing for me. I was brought to the Catholic church when I was 5 or 6 just as a family thing, because my mother felt that now that she had kids it’s time for religion, I guess. It was at least what she had been taught; it was ‘hereditary religion.’ I started going to CCD class, getting on track for communion, and everything I learned there was not really anything I was able to take seriously. A lot of it was just Bible stories and, while we opened and closed with prayer, I tended to see it as just a role-playing thing or like story time at school. I never really internalized it as something I was actually supposed to believe. I tried praying once or twice on the off chance that there was anything to it, and afterwards when nothing happened I was like, ‘I guess I was right, there’s nothing going on here.’

We switched to a WELS Lutheran church because that’s where my mom’s friends were going now. So we started going there and that was when I first got exposed to some really serious intensive religion. To take communion there children first had to go through a two-year-long confirmation class. Once a week I spent a couple hours there, every Wednesday night, and there were five or six of us in the class headed towards confirmation, and we learned a lot of interesting things there, studying whatever the pastor felt was relevant in the Bible. This was a Young Earth Creationist church, a homophobic church, an anti-science church, and very anti-Catholic. I learned that the Pope is the representative of the antichrist on Earth. I learned how radiometric dating is some sort of lie and how dinosaur bones aren’t actually real––they were placed in the ground as a test of our faith. Meanwhile, I was in high school biology learning about basic things like the history of Earth and how basic life sciences work, and it was very difficult to see how I could learn about actual science all week long and then be expected to turn that off and ignore it as if it meant nothing and pretend for a couple hours that we live in a world that’s 10,000 years old and the antichrist walks the earth. That was when religion really raised the stakes in terms of the extreme claims it was making and I was not at all able to accept that. They pit themselves against established science and, in my mind, they lost.

We ended up leaving that church because the pastor had told my mom that she should not divorce her abusive husband because the vows of marriage required that she stay with him; she wasn’t up for that and I can’t blame her. After that, I didn’t exactly state my non-belief explicitly; I might have nominally said I was a Christian because I didn’t know about any alternative, but I switched over to agnostic just because of that nagging fear: what if you’re wrong? Do you really want to risk that? And I was there for a little while, but eventually I fought my way out of it by just asking myself, am I afraid of Islam? Do I believe in that, just in case? I just realized there was no reason to treat Christianity as special either. Around 17 or 18 I became more comfortable just considering myself an atheist, and shortly around the 2008 election, when Prop 8 passed largely due to Mormon campaigning and Mormon funding, it struck me as the height of absurdity that this faith was now the basis for worshippers to spend millions of dollars to make sure that gay people in California could not get married anymore. It was outrageous to me, and that’s when I started my YouTube channel and I spent the next couple years just addressing the various things I encountered.

SW: Can you address your top three or four misconceptions that you encounter about trans* people?

ZJ: A lot of people seem to think that treatment in terms of transitioning is just an elective thing or a cosmetic thing. Some people tend to think of it in the same sense as breast augmentation or something. Major medical bodies state that this is not merely cosmetic thing. But people have come to associate anything that surgically alters your body as being associated with vanity. It’s really not in this case here; it’s just correcting something that’s unwanted and should not have happened biologically so your body simply works better. This is a very necessary thing.

Also, nobody seems to actually know what hormones do. I’m not even sure what people think they do. But it’s important to make clear that it’s effectively an antidepressant, antianxiety drug. Aside from arresting unwanted changes physically, it really is essential to mental health for those who need it.

Overall, people have very little sense of exactly how important this is in terms of having a fulfilling life. Gender is a pretty fundamental thing, and it’s something you need to be comfortable with in order to just make life worth living and pursue anything in life and have a sense of purpose. A lot of trans women share this experience of mine where until we started transitioning most things in life seemed pretty pointless. I just did videos for years to keep myself occupied and have something to do, and stave off depression for another day.

When you do get treated, things start to change. You start to see things differently within a week of getting started. I felt better than I ever have in my life. Over the past year, just in contrast to everything that came before, I got my first full-time real job; I got to speak at a secular rally; I’ve been able to appear on CNN; I’m engaged now; I’m writing a book. These are basic matters of just realizing your full potential and making life something we can actually be enthusiastic and productive about and something that has a point and a purpose to it. To act like that’s something unimportant is just not correct and contrary to the experience of many trans* people. It’s very important to listen to trans* people when they explain what their lives are like and when they explain why their treatment is necessary.

SW: What issues would you especially like to see the atheist/secular community more involved in?

ZJ: I think focusing on LGBT rights is a pressing issue right now, given that it’s the site of so much basic science opposition. So much of homophobia is religious in nature. So much of transphobia is anti-science. It’s rooted in this conservative belief system which by all rights we should stand opposed to. Focusing on LGBT issues in particular seems like something the secular movement should really be cut out for. It’s a really basic thing where there’s plenty of science; there are really no excuses for intolerance from an empirical perspective, but prejudice continues to flourish in that vacuum of information, and that’s something atheists should be a part of changing.

2013-08-262015-07-22 Secular Woman Article

Remember Women’s Equality Day

By Elsa Roberts, Follow her on Twitter

One woman struggles on a table while five prison guards hold her down and shove a feeding tube up her nose.

During another prison stay her hands are handcuffed above the door for the night after she was beaten.

Another woman, another feeding tube forced on her, and raw eggs poured down her throat.

These women, described above, endured painful indignities and intermittent imprisonment to help secure the right to vote that women currently enjoy in the U.S. today; their names were Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

They were part of what is known as the Suffrage movement, which began in the mid 1800s and continued through the Victorian era until women finally secured voting rights after August 18, 1920, after Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th amendment.

Paul and Burns were preceded in the movement by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and numerous other women, many of whom convened the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 to put forth demands for the rights of women. One of those rights was the right to vote, and so the Suffrage movement got underway. Anthony and many other activists pushed for women’s right to vote through education campaigns, picketing the White House, attempting to vote in elections, and lobbying congress. In 1878, Stanton and Anthony drafted what would become the 19th Amendment. It was presented to the Senate where it spent several years in committee before being voted down in 1887.

It took many more years of action and the civil disobedience of women like Paul and Burns, who organized the National Women’s Party in 1917 to begin to picket the White House in protest of President Wilson’s opposition to suffrage. The women picketing, known a the Silent Sentinels, picketed every day except Sunday until 1919. Wilson eventually bowed to pressure and supported the 19th amendment, and, after a failed attempt in 1918, it passed Congress in 1919.

Now, when women head to the polls or fill out their absentee ballot, they are fulfilling the legacy left by women ready to die for the ability to have their voices heard and participate fully in the political process through voting. Today, on August 26, 2013, Women’s Equality Day, let us remember these women and celebrate our right to participate in the democratic process while remaining vigilant to protect our voting rights, which are again under attack.

Today, as we take note of our progress we must also again take up the mantle of our foremothers and fight to retain our rights, as they are slowly being eroded away via removing protections from the Voting Rights Act, shortening early voting days and times around the country, and burdening erstwhile voters with ID requirements. Celebrate the women who worked to gain the vote by becoming involved in your local elections and state politics, demand expanded early voting days and fight against the ID requirements which disproportionately impact people of color, women, and the elderly. Together we can take back our rights!

2013-08-232015-04-21 Secular Woman Interviews

Interview: Sikivu Hutchinson on Race, Gender, and Humanism

On August 24 Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta will host Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars (2011) and Godless Americana: Race & Religious Rebels. She is also the founder of Los Angeles’s Black Skeptics. “"Black Nonbelievers is honored to host Sikivu in the Atlanta area,” said Black Nonbelievers president Mandisa Thomas. “She is a true inspiration and fantastic representative––not only to freethinkers of color, but also the secular community as a whole. We hope as many people as possible come out to hear her message." Secular Woman president Kim Rippere will attend the event; Rippere says, “It is important and vital to reach out and support to all secular women in their endeavors in the secular community and in the broader community.” Secular Woman had the chance to ask Dr. Hutchinson a few questions about supporting people of color in atheism and feminism, prior to her presentation.

SW: Did you follow the #solidarityisforwhitewomen conversation on twitter last week? What do you think is the most important thing mainstream feminism needs to change to ensure an intersectional approach?

SH: I did not follow it closely but I saw a few tweets that spoke to the polarizing effect white privilege and white supremacy have on mainstream feminism. When there is no acknowledgment of white female privilege vis-a-vis cultural representation, political visibility, residential segregation, employment opportunities, and basic class mobility, then many feminists of color grow weary of claims of ally-building. For example, many feminists of color are deeply invested in seeking to redress the regime of mass incarceration, prison pipelining, and misogynist/homophobic violence that directly impacts the lives of straight and queer youth of color. Black women who have been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses compose the largest segment of the female prison population. The criminalization of Black women begins long before they are incarcerated in adult prisons. For example, Black girls have the highest rates of suspension/expulsion in the country and are more likely to have experienced sexual assault and domestic violence. The majority of female prisoners have experienced violence, abuse and assault. These are "intersectional" issues that are not typically focused on in the mainstream women's movement and are certainly not on the agenda of white secularist feminists.

SW: How can the atheist movement be better at community, serving those who come from particularly religious backgrounds?

SH: There are many "closeted" atheists in religious communities of color who identify with the social justice values and activist work of progressive community-based faith organizations. Unfortunately there are very few atheist/humanist organizations that explicitly align with and pursue social justice work. Radical and progressive humanist organizations that espouse alternatives to religion must be steeped in critical consciousness about how interlocking issues of racist, sexist, heterosexist, capitalist disenfranchisement specifically limit and impact people of color in traditionally religious communities. As I have argued in both Moral Combat and Godless Americana, it's problematic when white nonbelievers give lip service to being "down" with (what they deem to be) "oppressed" "hyper-religious" people of color while remaining willfully ignorant of how all whites benefit from overarching structures of white supremacy, racial apartheid, and patriarchy, which both inform and supersede religious hierarchies.

This year, Black Skeptics Los Angeles spearheaded its First in the Family Humanist scholarship program for undocumented, homeless, foster care and LGBTQ youth. These youth populations are at the epicenter of the school-to-prison pipeline and are the least likely to gain admittance to college, much less successfully graduate from college. Foster care youth are especially vulnerable to becoming homeless and incarcerated; while LGBTQ youth of color are overrepresented in both the foster care and homeless populations and are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and school officials for detention and imprisonment. These youth are also the most likely to be victimized by homophobic religious persecution from their families, schools and churches. Why aren't any atheist or humanist organizations on the frontlines addressing this crisis? Because these are "invisible" issues that do not directly affect the predominantly white middle class constituencies of mainstream New Atheism or humanism. It is a privilege to wake up every day and "breathe while white", i.e., not have to worry about being criminalized, racially profiled or new Jim-Crowed in heavily policed racially segregated transit-dependent communities with no living wage jobs.

SW: What can Secular Woman do to better address and support the needs of women of color?

SH: Secular Woman can help foreground the importance of these issues for humanist movement building, especially if it is truly invested in building a social and gender justice-based "inclusive" secular/humanist/atheist movement. It can continue to support programming (like the Women's Leadership Project feminist mentoring program, BSLA's First in the Family scholarship program, and similar initiatives that don't expressly come from the secular community) that is specifically geared toward creating humanist educational avenues and opportunities for youth of color. It can also advocate for these initiatives within the broader atheist/humanist/secular community by taking an active stand on anti-racist feminist discourse. Finally, it can help promote our forthcoming Women of Color Beyond Faith anthology––which will be the first collection of critical essays on the subject by a multiracial group of American women.

2013-08-22 Secular Woman Uncategorized

Interview: Teresa McBain and Religious Newswriters Conference

Teresa MacBain, the former pastor who famously came out as an atheist during her speech at last spring’s American Atheists convention, has earned recognition for her remarkable bravery over the last year, including AA’s Atheist of the Year award. She recently reached her Indiegogo goal to raise money to attend the Religious Newswriters’ Conference in Austin this fall, where she will take part in the conference’s first-ever “Meet the Freethinkers” panel. She speaks to Secular Woman, which donated to her campaign, about the conference, the position of atheists in the media, and how our movement can better support the brave people who risk losing their families, friends, and even their careers to take a stand for nonbelief. “Secular Woman is proud to promote and support nonreligious women in their endeavors to strengthen and represent the community,” says SW president Kim Rippere. “We are also pleased to see the Religious Newswriters Conference featuring atheist speakers, thanks to Teresa MacBain’s efforts.”

SW: Take us from last spring, when NPR ran a story about your remarkable, public coming out as an atheist, to now. What has the last year and a half been like for you?

It’s been very up and down. There have been some really great things, but after losing an entire community of friends and acquaintances it’s hard when you think about all the hurt and everything you lost. It can make you pretty down and pretty depressed.

I have been trying to find myself after 44 years of living one way, being not necessarily thrown into this––[coming out] was my own choice––but entering the normal world and not knowing how to make friends has been a real struggle for me. I think I’m finally coming around after a year and a half of just understanding how the whole thing works and discovering who I am apart from being in ministry, figuring out where I fit into the secular world.

How has the secular movement treated you? How can we be more welcoming to those who have recently come out?

For me it’s been very welcoming. There are the people thinking, she’s an ex-preacher, she’s going to go back, but there haven’t been a lot who have said that. I came out in a public way and people identify with me through that; while I don’t think my experience is unique, for me there was an instant connection to people that some don’t get. Some people come out in their community and are somewhat lost. As a movement as a whole, getting the word out, using things like the Clergy Project and Recovering from Religion, where people can get the support they need––I think that helps.

What do you miss about your religious life?

For me, it’s having somewhat of a structured community. The structure offers everything from efforts to do service projects to picnics and softball; it’s a real community.

What should atheists know about the Religious Newswriters Conference?

I was there last year tabling and there was not one single panel with a freethinker or secular communiqe on it. I talked to the organizer and she said she’d never noticed that. She worked with us and people generously gave the money for us to do this panel, and we just started putting together a wide range of people panel who would discuss what atheism and freethought are.

This is the first time a group of atheists, skeptics, etc. have ever been at the RNC, which is typically filled with religious reporters and religious people. It’s a chance for us to not only share about our groups but for these people to see who we are, talk to us afterwards, and understand that our movement is broad, that we have good goals, that we want to bring awareness and we want to normalize the words atheist, humanist, etc. We want them to understand that we are actually doing good things, but we’re ignored in the news media.

The Religious Newswriters Conference will take place in Austin, Texas, September 26–28; for more information visit the association’s website.

2013-08-202015-04-21 Secular Woman Women's Leadership Project

An Interview with Women’s Leadership Project

SW: Why do the girls participate in the program?

WLP: The girls participate because they feel empowered by learning about the social history of feminists of color and connecting them to their lived experiences. Many feel as though they’ve been shafted by mainstream public education’s drill and kill high stakes testing regime that shuts out meaningful critical engagement with the contributions, social capital, cultural knowledge, and liberation struggle of communities of color in the U.S. and beyond. For example, during our annual Denim Day outreach we don’t just address the objectification and abuse young women experience in their daily lives and relationships but also examine the impact of media and social imaging of women of color. Because white European women have always been constructed as the universal beauty and human ideal, Black, Latina, Asian, and Native American women are sexualized in ways that European American white women have never been. Pretending like "all women" are oppressed by sexist exploitation ignores the role racism, segregation and white supremacy play in the way black and Latina women are brutally marginalized in the workplace, denied access to reproductive health and demeaned/ marginalized in media portrayals of "proper" or even so-called empowered femininity. When we address sexual harassment and sexual assault we contextualize them vis-à-vis the history of exploitation and commodification of the bodies of women of color through slavery, imperialist occupation and dispossession.

SW: What is the program focused on accomplishing?

WLP: We educate young women of color in feminist humanist practice. We empower them to take ownership of their lives and communities by connecting the struggles of previous generations with their present and future. We specifically develop curricula on women’s rights, social histories and activist traditions. The program also focuses on peer education and training on HIV/AIDS prevention, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, reproductive justice, media literacy and safe space creation for LGBTQ youth.
We also provide college resources for financial aid, tutoring, scholarships, job and internship opportunities and undocumented youth resources.

SW: What changes do you see in the girls as they progress through the program?

WLP: They become more confident, they question and challenge social norms, and they begin to view themselves as scholars, intellectuals and activists. They learn how to collaborate with other groups, train their peers, respectfully debate viewpoints they disagree with, and engage with adults as stakeholders in the school-community. They don’t accept the criminally low expectations that mainstream society imposes on them, and, most crucially, they begin to think outside of the box about the kinds of professions and roles they’ve been told they’re best suited to. We’ve had a number of young women decide to be doctors, attorneys and academics as a result of their involvement with WLP. We recently hosted a young African American planetary geologist (now a program manager at the California Science Center) who was literally the only black woman to receive a B.S. in astrophysics in her graduating class at UCLA. Most of our students had never heard of a black female scientist, much less met one in the flesh. I think being exposed to a cross-section of female of color professionals and hearing their stories struggling with racism, sexism and homophobia in male-dominated fields has been invaluable to them. But far more than just viewing themselves as high achievers they become critically conscious of the way institutional oppression limits and dehumanizes their communities. The schools where WLP is based are at the epicenter of what has come to be known as the school-to-prison pipeline. Many of our youth see the devastating effects of mass incarceration up close and personal. They see their peers get sucked into the dead end cycle of low wage employment, unplanned pregnancy, juvenile detention, probation and homelessness. So our intense focus on writing, public speaking, publication, peer education, feminist consciousness-raising and college has a direct impact on their outcomes as well as that of the overall school-community.

SW: What cultural forces do you see the girls struggling with? One of the biggest is that sexism and misogyny don’t matter.

WLP: In the U.S., most girls are not socialized to "see" these forces in their lives and reflexively dis-identify when they do. One of the greatest challenges our students face when they do peer training is framing sexual abuse and degradation as a human rights violation. Intimate partner violence, sexual assault and STD contraction is extremely high amongst girls of color. But because they are always told that racism is the "real" issue in their lives, and that men of color "have it harder", they often overlook sexism and gender discrimination. Over the past decade prostitution and sex trafficking have become a major factor for younger girls in our communities. In addition, we’ve been having more discussions about the impact porn culture and reality programming has on their lives and psyches. Some girls at the schools where WLP is based have even filmed themselves committing pornographic acts because they are so starved for attention and validation. Others are coerced into exposing themselves online in order to please a "boyfriend" or adult predator who is exploiting them for sex. Certainly much of the normalizing bitch/ho/pimp/hustler pop culture language in mainstream media has facilitated these trends. Girls see hyper-sexuality as a means of getting validation and affirmation from males and this leads to destructive internalized sexism/ self-hatred. This is especially lethal for African American girls because of the prevailing historical association of black female sexuality with pathology, criminality and "welfare queen" shiftlessness.

SW: What have you learned from the participants?

WLP: Feminist organizing and education in WLP is driven by students’ lived experiences, community context and cultural knowledge. Culturally relevant teaching means that so-called adult experts/authority figures like me become students in the teaching and learning process. Unlike many of my students, I grew up in a middle class family and never had to worry about whether or not I was going to go to college. I was never expected to sacrifice my education to be a breadwinner and/or primary caregiver, nor did I have to struggle to find a place to sleep at night. As an American citizen I’ve never had to hustle to find financial aid resources for college while worrying about deportation. And as a straight girl my sexual orientation was never questioned, marginalized or demeaned by teachers, textbooks and the general school-community. Moreover, even though black youth were criminalized when I was in school (hostile encounters with the LAPD were certainly a vivid part of my upbringing), the experience was not as insidious as it is today. Virtually every young person we work with knows someone their age that has been involved in the system. Whole families have been destroyed by racist sentencing policies, leading to greater numbers of African American youth being placed in foster care and/or becoming homeless. This perspective drives my work with youth in WLP and other programs. Drawing from their own experiences, the students help shape our curriculum and have an active role in developing instruction. The students lead these workshops and their frontline experiences with misogynist dehumanization drive much of our in-class media literacy initiatives. Students analyze how specific images, songs, and shows socialize young women and men to view violence against women as normal and acceptable. They gain greater insight into and empathy about the everyday inequities girls of color face. Ultimately this approach allows us to explore feminist alternatives vis-à-vis busting stereotypes, building healthy relationships, boosting academic expectations and improving campus climate.

SW: How can the general public support the girls and your efforts?

WLP: We’re trying to expand WLP into other schools to develop more feminist humanist programming. It’s immensely helpful when organizations and groups like yours promote our students’ work. We’ve also been working with Black Skeptics Los Angele to secure grant funding. This year, BSLA launched the First in the Family Humanist scholarship fund to support students that are historically under-represented in the college-going population. The fund provides scholarships for undocumented, LGBTQ, foster care and homeless youth (for more information contact [email protected]).

2013-08-14 Secular Woman Uncategorized

It’s Time for a New Equal Rights Amendment

It’s Time for a New Equal Rights Amendment
By Dr. Kristi Winters

It is time for a new Equal Rights Amendment in America. This wouldn’t be your mother’s Equal Rights Amendment. America has changed a lot since 1972. Our values have changed a lot since 1972. Our families have changed a lot since 1972 and that is why we need a new Equal Rights Amendment for the 21st century.

In my view, it is time to rewrite the Equal Rights Amendment to include sexual orientation to truly protect all American men and women from discrimination. Only a small addition in the wording is needed:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex or sexual orientation.

When I get to thinking about it, there are many good reasons for a New ERA. In this article I will only focus on three. First I will look at a few of the arguments offered by Phyllis Schlafly; a key actor in the defeat of the original ERA. I then compare that out-dated worldview to three examples of why a new ERA could help working women, same-sex couples and men’s parental leave.

The Equal Rights Amendment debated in the 1970s was (by comparison) a narrow argument that contested the roles of heterosexual women and men in the public and private spheres. I use the views of Phyllis Schlafly to represent the attitudes that were advanced to defeat the original ERA. On marriage she wrote: ‘Marriage and motherhood give a woman new identity and the opportunity for all-round fulfillment as a woman’ (Schlafly 2003, p. 196). How should women act within marriage and motherhood? According to Schlafly, ‘Society simply has not invented a better way of raising children than the traditional family…[The] division of labor is cost efficient, the environment is healthy, and the children thrive on the ‘object constancy’ of the mother’ (ibid, p. 207). She is dismissive of women’s roles outside the home. “After twenty years…a mother can see the results of her own handiwork in the good citizen she has produced and trained. After twenty years…in the business world, you are lucky if you have a good watch to show for your efforts” (Schlafly 1977, p. 52).

Mrs. Schlafly’s fantasy world where everyone is heterosexual, fertile, and where men earn enough money to feed, house and clothe themselves, their wives and all their children never existed in America, but it bears even less resemblance to the America of today than the 1960s and 1970s.

Let’s consider the reality of people’s lived experiences. The most obvious difference between Mrs. Schlafly’s notion of marriage and today is the movement for marriage equality. The Supreme Court of the United States announced on June 26 that denying same sex couples the same federal benefits as their opposite sex counterparts was ‘treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others’. They concluded that the Defense of Marriage Act was ‘in violation of the Fifth Amendment’.

Advocates of marriage equality now turn their attention to the state-by-state campaigns to alter state legislation, court cases demanding equal treatment under the law. It seems to me that a constitutional amendment enshrining those rights in the form of a New ERA should be part of that effort.

Another stark difference to the fantasy world of Mrs. Schlafly is found in the breadwinngin role that increasing numbers of American women are taking up in the home. According to Pew Research Center, US Census Bureau data showed that in 2011 40 percent of leading or sole breadwinners in American households were women. That is up from only 11 percent in 1960 (Langfield 2013). Yet despite the fact that women are equally or better educated than their husbands, most men still earn more than their spouses, the Pew study noted. I would argue that part of that wage gap is the result of not having constitutional protections against sexual discrimination.

With a New Equal Rights Amendment we could protect women’s wages from the 2011 views of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who said: ‘Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't. Nobody ever thought that that's what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws’ (Terkel 2011).

I agree with Justice Scalia. If the Constitution has a blind spot for the protections of Americans based on their sex or sexual orientation then let’s change it!

Finally I want to address the men’s rights and the new ERA as regards family leave policies. According to a Boston College study, less than 1 percent of American men take significant amounts of parental leave. It also found that the more time fathers spent with their children the more confident they felt as parents. American men clearly experience an invisible form of sexual discrimination when they seek to take up a caring role rather than the role of earner.

Anecdotally, I found an article where an employer details a male employee who had taken off time for family leave, during which time the company held performance reviews. The employer wrote, ‘Bonuses are based on these reviews, and some of the management team feel like he doesn't deserve a bonus because of taking 3 months off. Do we have to give him a review? Can we skip giving him a bonus?’

The answer that came back was loud and forceful: ‘Simple answer? No. You cannot withhold a bonus because someone took legally allowable time off. I suspect that if this was a woman taking maternity leave, the conversation about withholding the bonus would have never even come up’ (Lucas 2011). The author’s response was right, of course. But shouldn’t our goal for American fathers be that no manager or employer even considering financially punishing a man for spending time in that most vital of all men’s roles in life: being a father?

For these reason, and for far more, all Americans need a new Equal Rights Amendment. Rather than pitting men against women, this new Equal Rights Amendment debate can be about eliminating sex and sexual orientation as a basis for discrimination for all Americans: straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered. It will protect working moms, stay-at-home dads, and every form of family we have in America.

That is why I call upon U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin to author and introduce a new Equal Rights Amendment. As the first openly gay woman elected to the Senate she embodies the presence of women in traditionally male spaces. Further her presence upends the heteronormativity that dominates the framing of work-life balance issues. I hope that she and Senator Robert Menendez, who introduced the old ERA as S. J. Res 10 on March 5th of this year, will draft new language that will restart an old debate from a completely different perspective.

Please lend your support by signing and sharing the petition calling on Senators Tammy Baldwin and Robert Menendez to introduce a new Equal Rights Amendment for the 21st century.

References

Langfield, Amy. 2013. ‘Pew Study Shows Women Leading Breadwinners in 40 Percent of Households’ The Daily Beast. Retrieved from: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/29/pew-study-shows-women-leading-breadwinners-in-40-percent-of-households.html

Lucas, Suzanne. 2011. ‘Will paternity leave hurt your career?’ CBS Money Watch. Retrieved from: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57322597/will-paternity-leave-hurt-your-career/

Schlafly, Phyllis. 1977. The Power of the Positive Woman. New York: Arlington House Publishers.

Schlafly, Phyllis. 2003. Feminist Fantasies. Texas: Spence Publishing Company.

Terkel, Amanda. 2011.‘Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination’ The Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/03/scalia-women-discrimination-constitution_n_803813.html

This article was edited on 05 September 2013.