Lobbying to end child marriage, rallying for atheist community
Thanks to the support of Atheists United donors, our Executive Director Evan Clark was able to travel to Sacramento this June to lobby for bill AB1267, which would end child marriage in California.
California is one of only three U.S. states that has no minimum marriage age. Atheists United is a proud member of the California Coalition to End Child Marriage, led by Unchained At Last.
Evan met with lawmakers as part as part of a group that also included child marriage survivors, coalition members, and staff from Unchained at Last. During meetings with 18 State Representatives, survivors shared stories of family coercion, physical abuse, emotional manipulation, financial manipulation, and rape.
Around the same time, Evan was quoted in an article about a shocking new law in Arizona making it a felony to disturb church services. A similar bill is moving through the California Legislature right now.
California’s AB2664 would make it a crime to engage in any kind of activism near a religious institution. This represents a massive religious privilege impacting all activists, including LGBTQ+, anti-war activists, and religious abuse survivors.
This bill has already passed the House and is headed to Senate Appropriations Committee. See our action alert here for more info and instructions for how to oppose it.
This month, we also…
Hosted our biggest food distribution of all time on Juneteenth (over 7,000 pounds of food for 180 households)
Held our all-day Reimagining America Summit for 90 people
Took 25 atheists stargazing at Mt. Wilson Observatory
Held our second community yard sale
Hosted an art exhibition featuring dozens of repurposed religious signs (which our volunteers found hung illegally on public property)
Looking forward, we just announced our Summer Beach Party in Seal Beach July 25th.
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Financial note
We’re about to enter our summer fundraising drive. A generous matching donor has pledged to match up to $5,000 in contributions through the end of summer. This means all donations made at this time are doubled until we reach that threshold.
If we can raise the whole amount, it will cover our entire travel budget for next year, allowing us to continue lobbying on the important issues above and more.
