The Forward Freethought Tuition Relief Scholarships is funded by generous FFRF benefactor Lance Bredvold. This year, the students were selected by Black Skeptics Los Angeles, an African-American humanist-atheist community-based organization.
FFRF has previously partnered with BSLA in its annual “first in the family” humanist scholarships for outstanding secular students of color.
Scholarship recipient Luz Santos said, “What I’ve learned through my experiences is that religion only restricts who you are. No religion was going to fully accept who I was in terms of gender identity and sexual orientation. No religion was there when my parents forced me to keep going to church. No religion has been there when I’ve had to cry myself to sleep every night, yearning to one day feel acceptance. Instead of following a religion, I would like to focus on the discrimination that LGBTQ+ youth face every day for being who they are.”
