As a gay man I cannot help but draw parallels between the liberation of the gay community from social pariah to generally tolerated and even embraced status in mainstream society and the as yet "closeted" status of the anti-theist community. The pivotal moment for the gay community was the Stonewall riots in New York City in the summer of 1969 following incessant police raids on a gay club known as the Stonewall Inn over a period of several days. Though many brave souls did live their lives openly as gay people prior to the riots they tended to live in "gay ghettos" in a few large cities and shunned the mainstream society that shunned them. I see the present situation of the anti-the community in similar ways. We are open in our declarations with others in our community but are passive observers in the broader spectrum of society. Ideally, our passivity would lead to change. But that is not how the world works. When will we take to the streets? When will we vandalize nativity scenes on public property, take chisels to "In god we trust" in court rooms or drown out the inaugural oath of a politician with his hand on the bible? When will we have our Stonewall?
Wow, really well put but I'm not sure it correlates that well. In this country at least the atheist/agnostic community isn't threatened with jail, beatings and even death unlike the LGBTQ community was. I definitely want a complete separation of church and state but I don't think we currently face the same discrimination. I usually am very open with my non-beliefs but if someone wants to be a theist go ahead. As long as their beliefs don't infringe on my life and as long as they don't try and muzzle me I will let them get on with their lives. I, along with many others, am currently struggling politically against the current drive to implement the christian version of sharia law but until something that bad happens here I don't think we will have our Stonewall moment. Other countries where non-believers face a much harsher reality? Maybe something like that could happen there.
Nobody is carting us off to jail for being nonbelievers.
Not being carted off to jail does not mean we are not discriminated against, suppressed and having our freedom from religion constantly infringed upon.
BD66's point is that gays were being carted off to jail for being gay at the time of Stonewall. There was therefore a much stronger case for gays to riot than for atheists to break the law today. To use your example of nativity scenes on public property, it is both much more fun and more effective to sue for the right to erect a statue of Baphomet in the same public space as the Satanic Temple has been moving to do (In the end the ACLU won the suit in Oklahoma, so the Ten Commandments were removed, so no Baphomet, either). [vice.com]