Well, the truth is there is a long history of secularism and humanism in the African-American community and it’s long past time that the rest of us took notice. There’s also a way we can help the growing numbers of atheists and free-thinkers of color. It’s call the Day of Solidarity for Black Non-Believers and I encourage you to help spread the word.

That last link was to a brand new site, African-Americans for Humanism , and it’s one I’m really excited about. I salute Debbie Goddard and thank her for her work on this project. I’m a white dude, but I know how important this is and hope to see her soon overwhelmed with work as this project takes off. I will also be looking at ways I can help the cause.

[caption id=“attachment_517” align=“alignleft” width=“200” caption=“The Friendzone (actual photo)”]

A lot of guys, and all Nice Guys™, like to talk about the Friendzone, which is a desolate wasteland of no-sex that men are cast into by callous women who don’t want to fuck them. It works like this: Dude likes a lady. I mean he REALLY likes her. She likes him, but she doesn’t LIKE like him. He is banished to the Friendzone and his penis is dry forever after. What’s worse, she keeps being friends with the guy who she has betrayed (by not sucking his dick) and has the audacity to date and copulate with OTHER DUDES who are obviously inferior to our hero.

“Just read your guide to not being a misogynist . I’m very interested in your views on privilege from here in England. It’s interesting to see how hot you are at proclaiming white, male, heterosexual males to be privileged.

“I agree to a certain extent, but domestically I feel that class, socio-economic, health and educational attainment are just as important. Therefore, in your mind I’m possibly one of those males who you may consider ‘just don’t get it’.

As we all know , the condition of one’s body has little bearing on their mind and what they can contribute to our communities. As someone who helps organize a skeptical conference in Northern California I found myself thinking how event organizers can take some extra steps to ensure that we don’t miss out on hearing any worthy voices in our cause. I asked for some input from skeptics and atheists with disabilities and have a few ideas myself. So, what can we do to make our events accessible to everyone?

[NOTE: This was originally published in July 2011.]

First, some background It seems the whole thing got started when Rebecca Watson of Skepchick wrote about an encounter she had with a man in an elevator in Dublin. Long story short: the guy propositioned her, and she said no; she also felt somewhat cornered seeing as how she was stuck, alone, in a metal cage with the guy. Apparently, there were a number of people who thought she handled the situation poorly (especially by blogging about it and noting the inappropriate behavior on the part of the man in question).

By now, everybody in the atheosphere is familiar with the Jessica Ahlquist story, and especially the latest development in the saga. The sheer amount of bigotry, hatred, and blind, unthinking idiocy on display by citizens of Cranston is astonishing, made no less so by their calls for religious tolerance.

…wait for it….

“Religious tolerance?!”

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“295” caption=“Now I know how Link felt every time he said this and forgive him his annoying catchphrase”]

We here at More Than Men love this guy, and hope he will soon contribute to the site directly.

[A slightly different version of this piece was posted on Sasha’s personal site . It is being reposted for this new audience.]

1. Women are nice to look at. They’re quite often pretty, they have an appealing shape, and our sexuality drives us to want to copulate with them. 2. __Women who are intelligent and/or who agree with our world view are even nicer to look at. __I don’t know a single person in our communities who doesn’t say they are more attracted to other members of our community than they are to people with different views on science, rationalism, and religion.

Still with me? Good. Now there are some things I want to point out that some of my fellow guys seem to be missing.

[This article was originally posted on the author’s blog .]

“A three-judge federal appeals panel ruled Friday that the state of Texas can move ahead with enforcement of a law requiring doctors to provide a sonogram to pregnant women before they get an abortion.”

“As written, the law would require women seeking an abortion in Texas to view a picture of the embryo or fetus and hear a description of its development before having the procedure.”

[caption id=“attachment_469” align=“alignleft” width=“240” caption=“Diversity makes many things easier.”]

One of the most often cited ways to encourage diversity within our communities is to promote diversity amongst the speakers we feature at our events. There has been a lot of high-profile success in this - TAM has been approaching 50/50 gender representation, for instance - but there still seem to be a lot of mostly-white, mostly-male speaker rosters and panels. One way that has been proposed for speakers to take action is for white men to decline an invitation to speak at an event or on a panel that lacks diversity . Those of us who organize conferences and events have even more power to make a change because we’re the one making invitations in the first place.