Why The Reason Rally is Worth Coming Out For

Fellow Huffington Post contributor, Nathalie Rothschild, recently wrote an article titled, Why The Reason Rally Isn't Worth Coming Out For. The article appears to be a deliberate attack on atheists. She did all but call us "uppity" for organizing the Reason Rally. I will take up the mantel of defending humanistic atheists and present my case for why I think the Reason Rally is worth coming out for.

Rothschild implies that only gays need to come out of the closet and that there is no societal pressure for atheists to remain closeted. This is flat out wrong. There is a huge cross-over demographic between the LBGT community and the greater community of reason. This of course is in no small part due to the fact that so many religious believers in America consider homosexuality to be a sin. The Bible even calls it an abomination (Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27) punishable by death (Leviticus 20:13). The pressure to keep gays closeted comes from the exact same people who hate atheists.

Don't take my word for this; be skeptical. Go to the Reason Rally in DC on March 24th and talk to some gay atheists. Some of them will tell you that it was harder to come out to their family as gay and others will tell you that it was harder to come out as an atheist. It will probably be about 50/50. So why is it difficult to come out as an atheist?

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But on to the discrimination! Yes, atheists face a great deal of discrimination and fear of discrimination for being outspoken about our lack of belief. Again, don't take my word of it; be skeptical. You can look at stories that have been in the news like the insults and threats that 16-year-old Jessica Alhquist received for standing up in favor of the Separation of Church and State or the recent "controversy" involving Miley Cyrus's tweet of a quote from A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss. But don't even take that on faith, experiment. Come out as an atheist to your friends, family, and co-workers (even if you really do believe). Consider it a challenge. See what happens. Play the role of an out of the closet atheist for a week or so.