Virginia Archives - American Atheists

Take a Stand Against Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination in Virginia!

American Atheists — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:55:30 +0000

The Virginia Values Act is currently on the desk of Governor Ralph Northam. This landmark bill would say once and for all that discrimination against LGBTQ Virginians is wrong. Both the Virginia House and Senate passed SB 868, which provides important non-discrimination protections in employment, housing, education, credit, and public accomodations to hundreds of thousands of Virginians. Now we need your help—please ask Gov. Northam to sign this bill into law today! The Governor received the bill on March 6th and has only 30 days to sign any bill into law. Justice can’t wait for thousands of LGBTQ Virginians. Please contact the Governor and ask him to sign SB 868! This popular, bipartisan bill would extend protections currently in place for state employees throughout the Old Dominion State. The Virginia Values Act has the support of a broad coalition of Virginia employers, civil rights leaders, and local secular organizations. The bill would make it clear that all residents of Virginia must be treated equally wherever they work, reside, or engage in daily life, without expanding existing religious exemptions. Many Americans believe that there are national non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, but that’s not the case—currently LGBTQ Virginians can be fired, evicted, or denied services for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Signing the Virginia Values Act would make Virginia the 25th state in this country to offer these critical protections – and the first in the South! Please act now—tell Gov. Northam that equality can’t wait! Please ask him to sign SB 868 today!

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Atheists: End Conversion Therapy in Virginia

American Atheists — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 18:02:43 +0000

Richmond, VA–Today, American Atheists submitted testimony supporting HB 386, a bill that would protect young LGBTQ Virginians from harmful conversion therapy. Conversion therapy consists of dangerous and discredited practices, often religiously based, that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. This legislation would protect LGBTQ young people in three ways: Professional standards for state-licensed health care providers would consider conversion therapy an unacceptable business practice for anyone under age 18. Those who perform conversion therapy would face disciplinary action. Virginia could not extend funds to support conversion therapy. Image by Daniel Tobias via Flickr under CC 2.0

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Virginia Should Remove Unconstitutional Restrictions on Abortion

American Atheists — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:48:58 +0000

Richmond, VA–Today, American Atheists and its Virginia affiliate organizations Southeastern Virginia Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists (SEVASH) and Beltway Atheists submitted testimony supporting the Reproductive Health Protection Act. The bills, SB 733 and HB 980, would remove several unconstitutional and medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion in Virginia. This legislation would protect women’s access to reproductive health care in 3 ways: Patients would no longer be forced to undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound and follow other procedures. Advanced practice clinicians (APCs) could perform abortion care in their scope of practice in early pregnancy. APCs are already providing abortion care in at least 15 states and Washington D.C., and the World Health Organization and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supports this. There would no longer be be unnecessary targeted regulation of abortion providers (TARP), which force medical facilities performing 5 or more early abortions per month to comply with medically unnecessary building, equipment, and administrative requirements. “Virginians should be able to get abortion care without burdensome delays and unnecessary travel,” wrote American Atheists’ Virginia State Director Larry Mendoza. “This bill is an important step to protecting access to abortion care in Virginia.”

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Atheists Oppose Mandatory Bible Electives in Virginia Public Schools

American Atheists — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 20:34:03 +0000

Richmond, VA—American Atheists, on behalf of its nearly 1,500 constituents in Virginia, wrote to express serious concern over SB 1502. This bill would require every public high school to offer an elective course on the Christian Bible or Hebrew Scriptures. American Atheists opposed SB 1502 for three reasons. First, it is wasteful of public education resources. Second, it puts schools at risk for liability. Third, it may result in religious coercion against Virginia students. In 2017, the state of Kentucky passed HB 128, which has language identical to SB 1502. The ACLU conducted a case study on the implementation of the elective Bible courses in public schools and determined that the majority of courses did not fall within the Constitutional strictures of being “objective, nondevotional, and … not promot[ing] any specific religious view.” The ACLU concluded that several of the courses were being used to impose religious “life lessons and actively inculcate Christianity.” If passed, SB 1502 will cause Virginia to face scrutiny as it implements a Bible course curriculum. “Taxpayer dollars should fund public education, not be wasted on efforts to indoctrinate students,” we wrote in our comments.

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Atheists: VA Public Schools Must Warn about Female Genital Mutilation

American Atheists — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:34:22 +0000

Richmond, VA—American Atheists, on behalf of its nearly 1,500 constituents in Virginia, wrote to provide testimony in support of SB 1159, a bill which requires public secondary schools to include information in their family life curriculum regarding the harmful physical and emotional effects of female genital mutilation (FGM). Read the full testimony below.

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