By KAREN FRANTZ
Apr. 14, 2010
Adapted from Humanist Network News

In mid-March, the American Humanist Association announced that, with the help of a generous donation from members Todd and Diana Stiefel, it was offering to plan and fund a prom for the Itawamba county Agricultural High School in Mississippi. The Itawamba County School District had made headlines by cancelling their prom rather than letting a lesbian student, Constance McMillen, bring her girlfriend as her date and wear a suit. The AHA planned to work with the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition (MSSC), which was organizing an alternative prom for Constance and of which the ACLU of Mississippi served as the fiscal sponsor.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jesse Galef (614) 441-9588 - Jesse [at] secularstudents [dot] org

March, 1 2010

Columbus, Ohio - In the first meeting of its kind, representatives from the Secular Student Alliance and atheist leaders from around the country met in Washington, DC for the Secular Coalition for America's Briefing with the Obama Administration.   Over 60 people, sent as delegates of national and local nontheistic organizations from around the country, congregated in the nation’s capital to engage with administration officials on issues concerning the nontheistic community.

Secular Student Alliance's Communications Director, Jesse Galef, was recently interviewed on the popular and influential talk/internet show The Young Turks. The 7-minute interview covered the controversy sparked by the Secular Coalition for America's policy briefing with the Obama administration and other news of the day.

Watch the interview on The Young Turks' Channel.

July 9, 2009
For release: immediately upon receipt
Contact: Lyz Liddell, (309) 868-5901 or (309) 208-7565 cell
Lyz(AT)secularstudents(DOT)org

Atheists Invade Creation Museum

COLUMBUS, OH – On Friday, August 7, dozens of atheists will descend on the biblically-inspired Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, led by outspoken atheist blogger PZ Myers.

"It should be great fun. I've got a long list of questions to ask the docents, so long that I'm going to have to prune it down a lot," said Myers, author of the popular blog Pharyngula and vocal opponent of the Museum's teachings.

The Secular Student Alliance is sponsoring Myers' visit to the Creation Museum as part of its 9th Annual National Conference, leading dozens of secular students and other nonbelievers to more closely examine a worldview with which they largely disagree.

"People often assume that supporters of evolution dismiss creationism without ever actually looking at it," said SSA Senior Campus Organizer Lyz Liddell, the organizer for this event.   "We're visiting the museum to show that we aren't afraid of challenges to our worldview."

The Secular Student Alliance supports a network of over 145 student groups composed of atheists, agnostics and other nonbelievers.  Leaders of these groups will be converging on Columbus, OH for training and networking during the weekend conference, where Myers will deliver a keynote address.

Myers was already scheduled to speak at the conference when the SSA offered the opportunity to visit the Museum.  "They suggested that I adjust my travel schedule a tiny bit and come down a day early, and we'd take a little side trip," said Myers.

Although the group of nonbelievers at the Museum will be large in number, their intent is not to cause a disturbance or disrupt the museum's usual operation.  "We are guests, and we will behave in a respectful and courteous manner at the Museum," Liddell states.

The Secular Student Alliance is an educational nonprofit whose mission is to organize, unite, educate and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific rationality, secularism, democracy, and human-based ethics.  Learn more at http://www.secularstudents.org.

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July 3 - Editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel, discusses the Obama Administration's outreach to the Secular Student Alliance, the Secular Coalition for America, and other nontheist organizations in "The Editor's Cut" blog Rediscovering Secular America.

The National Student has discovered that a death threat made during an atheist event in Leeds is the latest example of ongoing opposition and alleged prejudice towards atheist societies on campus.

During an event held between April 19th - 25th called ‘Rationalist Week 09’ organised by Leeds University Atheist Society and billed as ‘the country’s largest atheist festival’ a member of the society allegedly received a face to face death threat.