Sexual Harassment Policies Should be Gender Neutral
By Bernadette Chlebeck and Phil Cunliffe
When you hear the words “Sexual Harassment Policy,” what image comes to your mind? Most likely you envision a female victim and a male perpetrator. If you do, you are not alone. Statistics from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show that 82.2% of reported sexual harassment charges were filed by females. The atheist community has had its share of sexual harassment violations, and sexual harassment policies are now being created to help protect women.
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Minnesota Atheists has restarted our process to change Minnesota state law to allow atheist leaders to conduct civil marriages. We began this project a few years ago but then the marriage amendment and the marriage equality legislation intervened. We knew that the Minnesota state legislature was not going to tackle both gay and atheist marriage issues in the same year.
At the September board meeting, the Board voted to sign a lease on rental space at the Wesley Center in Downtown Minneapolis for $200 per month for one year. This arrangement failed when it was later determined that the space was already rented by another tenant. The Board agreed to continue to search for affordable spaces to display our extensive collection of atheist books that is currently in storage.
At the September Minnesota Atheists meeting with PZ Myers, a classic issue came up in the question-and-answer session: Atheism only defines what we do not believe rather that what we do believe. I argued that many people are proud to be independent, not dependent, even though this also defines only what they are not. Similarly, the Declaration of Independence is primarily a negation of dependence on Britain, but it is not viewed as a pejorative document, at least not because of its title.
The room was packed for September’s Minnesota Atheists meeting at the Roseville Public Library. The meeting featured PZ Myers, an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who has become well known in the atheist community through his Pharyngula blog at Freethought Blogs. He has recently released a book titled