Jessica Ahlquist: Atheist Litigant Triumphs Over Persecution скачать в хорошем качестве

Jessica Ahlquist: Atheist Litigant Triumphs Over Persecution

“Freethought Matters” catches up with Jessica Ahlquist, the courageous teenage atheist plaintiff who was roundly persecuted for suing over religion in her Rhode Island public school, including being branded “an evil little thing” by her state representative. She was only 16 when she won her lawsuit in 2012, after which she required a police escort just to safely attend school. Ahlquist looks back on what it was like to be in the middle of a legal firestorm, but says she would do it all over again. The show incorporates news clips, including when CNN interviewed Ahlquist about her victory. “After the new school year started, they started to have these meetings to discuss whether or not parents would like to stay or be removed,” she recounts to “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “I got involved in those and presented myself as an atheist to a room of people who had shown up to attend this meeting. I didn’t know quite what that was going to mean, using that word to describe myself at that time and at that place, and someone audibly gasped when I said I was an atheist. I was called a witch.” Learn more about the Freedom From Religion Foundation at ffrf.org.