They may be the most invisible interest group in American politics: secular Americans who now make up nearly a quarter of the American population, according to recent Gallup and Pew Research polls. But attendees of the "Reason Rally" at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, where as many as 30,00 atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and their allies are expected to attend, want to see that change.
Starting at 10 a.m, you can see the event live streaming here, via a YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/pFGUCQCvH9A
After the rally ends about 7 p.m., you can catch up on what you missed at ReasonRally.org
The rally will feature dozens of entertainers, authors, scientists and even a few members of Congress--everyone from comedian Margaret Cho and NASA scientist Carolyn Porco to Bill Nye and members of the Wu-Tang Clan--and will promote scientifically-based policies in public life. They aim to push back against the Religious Right, weakened after the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage but which still wields enough power to preserve and expand anti-gay laws, further restrict women's reproductive choices and keep in place federally-funded abstinence programs that actually increase pregnancies. (You can see here the horrifying data showing that Federal sex education funding tends to increase venereal disease and pregnancy rates when abstinence-only sex ed is brought to schools.)
The rally aims to celebrate the growth in numbers of the "nones"--secular and unaffiliated Americans--to almost 60 million and their potential political clout, joined with calls to return scientific evidence to public life. "We're speaking up for reason," says Lyz Liddell, the executive director of the Reason Rally Coalition composed of leading atheist, secular and humanist organizations. "We want reason to be the core of public policies rather than religious ideals."
The previous rally in 2012 drew over 10,000 people in the pouring rain to a gathering likened to a "Woodstock for Atheists." Like that previous event, this new one promises to be a "coming-out party," says Paul Provenza, a comedian, TV host and co-director of the scabarously hilarious film The Aristocrats, who was the master of ceremonies for that event and will co-host this new one. "We are finding a community and celebrating to choose what we believe based on reason and not on fairy tales." (Hear the full-length In These Times interview with Provenza about comedy, atheism and the Reason Rally here.)
But there has been an important shift in emphasis since that 2012 event --and the mounting attacks against religious believers by New Atheists such as Sam Harris--that led to a pushback even from sympathetic progressives over the "militant atheism" adopted by some speakers, notably the influential British scientist Richard Dawkins.
To learn more about the Reason Rally and how discrimination and bigotry targets secular Americans -- sometimes leading to death threats against teenagers and suicides -- read the full story at InThese Times here.
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This article was excerpted from a longer piece first published at In These Times.