merican Atheists announced today that it would host peaceful protest demonstrations at the upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The first action would take place at the GOP gathering in Philadelphia on Sunday, July 30. The Democratic Convention demonstration is still being planned, but is likely to be held sometime between August 14-17 near the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

   Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists said that the goal of the protests was to build awareness of First Amendment related issues and the role religion is playing in the year 2000 elections. "Both major political parties are draping themselves in the mantle of public religiosity," said Johnson," and as if the tens of millions of Americans who have no religious beliefs simply don't exist."

   Johnson said that the demonstrations would focus on issues such as public funding of religion through "faith-based" partnerships, voucher schemes, "special rights" legislation like the Religious Liberty Protection Act, and efforts to legislate prayer and display of religious symbols in government.

   "Both parties have endorsed some kind of unconstitutional legislation to create so-called "faith-based partnerships" between religious groups and government," Johnson added. "This is just one of many schemes that amounts to a tax to support organized religion. It's a 'partnership' between sectarian groups and the public treasury." She said that while there are some differences in the platforms of the two major parties on issues such as vouchers, "Democrats and Republicans have teamed up to fund legislatiction. Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that he would strike plans by the Los Angeles Police Department to isolate demonstrators far away from the Staples Center arena where the Democratic Convention is being held. The ACLU had filed suit charging that the protest restrictions would have limited demonstrations to a series of "pens" where they would not be visible to convention delegates or the media.

   Dave Kong, California State Director for American Atheists, is in charge of the LA action. He and Silverman stressed that the AA demonstrations would be peaceful, and concentrate on raising issues in the media.

   A special "Defending The Wall at Convention 2000" web page has been set up at http://www.atheists.org/action/defwall2000.html . It includes updates on demonstration planning, an issues section, and a page which can be printed out using Adobe Acrobat and distributed as a flyer. Those interested in protest can contact Dave Kong (West Coast) at dksf@atheists.org, or Dave Silverman (dsilverman@atheists.org) for the Philadelphia action.

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