Speak Up for Reason!
American voters are concerned about the influence of religion in this election campaign and about the irrationality of public policy that ignores science and common sense. Examples of these inroads into good policy abound. Here are just a few. We’re sure you can come up with more!
LGBTQ Equality
Religion should never be an excuse to deny public accommodation nor should it be an excuse for nonperformance of a person’s duties as a government employee. Yet, a Kentucky county clerk refused to issue marriage certificates to LGBT couples — even after being ordered to do so by the courts — because doing so violated her religious principles.
Is that reasonable?
Climate Change
An overwhelming number of scientists have raised the alarm about the disastrous impact climate change is having and will continue to have. Yet, climate change deniers continue to protect the fossil-fuel industry and refuse to implement policies to mitigate the effects of climate change. Yet, in 2015, the U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to deny that people cause climate change!
Is that reasonable?
Women’s Reproductive Rights
The beliefs of a minority of Americans have limited a woman’s right to choose and access to birth control – and, in the process, also have drastically cut the health care available to women. If a woman believes that birth control is a sin, she doesn’t have to use birth control—but she surely does not have the right to bar another woman from doing so. Those same politicians who vote against Planned Parenthood or insurance coverage for birth control or the morning-after pill would be appalled by a law that prohibited men from getting Viagra.
Is that reasonable?
Instead of science and the common good guiding policies, outside forces are given power they should not have. In the divisive, derisive rhetoric of this election year, reasonable people can unite around issues that concern us all. By uniting, we can make the news media and politicians take us seriously. “Nones,” atheists, and secular humanists are a force to be reckoned with.
It’s time for people who believe in data-driven, reasonable public policy to make their voices heard on issues that affect us all, no matter our faith or lack of faith, no matter the corporate interests that might be affected.
TAKE ACTION
Before you do anything else, register to vote!
Vote
Let politicians at every level know that logic, science, and values unrelated to religion do matter to voters! Celebrate at Reason Rally 2016, then go home and vote — in every election, from school board to president — for those who support those values.
The upcoming election will affect much more than just who the next president is. It will determine who controls Congress and who is the next Supreme Court justice.
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Lobby About Sex Ed
To exemplify the need for critical thinking in public policy, over 275 secular Americans lobbied Congress on June 2 and 3rd, 2016 to demand funding for sex education that has been shown to work, not sex education based on wishful thinking.