Free and open to the public! Freethought Backbone Award and Conference Keynote Address

The Secular Student Alliance is proud to announce that the Saturday evening sessions of its 2010 Annual Conference Keynote are free and open to the public! Arrive at Jennings Hall by 8PM.

Freethought Backbone Award �“ Ellery Schempp, Ph.D.

At each annual conference of the Secular Student Alliance, the SSA present the Freethought Backbone Award to an individual within the freethought movement who is a guide and inspiration for secular students and student groups. This person has demonstrated a commitment to the secular values of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics. This year's Freethought Backbone Award will be Presented to Ellery Schempp, Ph.D.

Keynote Address - Greta Christina: What Atheists Can Learn from the LGBT Movement

What can the atheist movement learn from the LGBT movement? The atheist movement is already modeling itself on the LGBT movement in many ways: most obviously with its focus on coming out of the closet. What else can the Atheist movement learn from the LGBT movement both from its successes and its failures? For those who have heard Greta Christina speak at SSA conferences in the past: this is a longer, significantly more fleshed-out version of the talk she gave at both Stanford and Harvard. In this talk, Greta discusses coming out; making atheism a safe place to come out into; defusing the ongoing battles between the firebrands and the diplomats in our movement; avoiding squabbles about language and self-definition; making our movement more diverse; preparing for success and the mainstreaming that will almost certainly accompany it; and other lessons that can be learned from the history of the LGBT movement.