The Freedom From Religion Foundation erected 15 billboard messages in Portland, Ore., in mid-October featuring Portland members to coincide with the 35th national FFRF convention there Oct. 12-14. Helping to celebrate the occasion were about 15 Portland-area FFRF members or families who volunteered to appear on a set of myth-dispelling billboards.
FFRF launched its largest “This is what an atheist looks like” campaign to date in Portland, also debuting a new slogan, “I’m SECULAR and I VOTE.” FFRF leased three 14×48-foot bulletins and 12 EcoPosters (10-foot by 23-inch signs), which appeared in a variety of locations.
“We were pleasantly surprised but sorry we had more volunteers than we could manage to use in the campaign. We wish we hadn’t had to turn anyone away,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The definitive American Religious Identification Survey shows that 24% of Oregonians identify as nonreligious, so FFRF’ers have plenty of good company. FFRF sends special thanks to Life Member Steve Eltinge, for taking the professional photographs, and to all participants for making the campaign possible.”
Michelle and Justin Atterbury were pictured on a magenta billboard saying, “This is what an atheist family looks like,” with their toddler, Sylvan, and baby, Scarlett. Also on a bulletin with this message were Roy Firestone, an engineer, and Karen Firestone, a Portland homemaker. Another couple, Heather Gonsior, drafter, and Shawn Swagerty, information systems director, appeared on a similar billboard.
Appealing brothers Brent Mangum, a chemist and OSU tutor, and Tyler, a physiologist, were pictured back-to-back on a blue “This is what atheists look like” billboard.
Other “This is what an atheist looks like” participants were Anita Brown, whose exotic cat, Wheely, also makes an appearance; Sonja Maglothin, an income auditor; Mark Hecate, a member of FFRF who is IT director at New Avenues for Youth; and Scott Mullin, a filmmaker in Portland.
Featured on a bright-blue billboard was Peter Boghossian, a well-known philosophy instructor at Portland State University, who has an upcoming book and spoke at the FFRF conference. Renee Barnett, who is a teaching assistant in Boghossian’s class on atheism, also appeared on a billboard.
With the election so close to FFRF’s conference, which attracted nearly 900 people from 43 states, two Canadian provinces and six nations, FFRF unveiled a timely billboard slogan, “I’m SECULAR and I VOTE.” The red, white and blue billboards featured the smiling faces of retired Portland teacher Lenora Warren; retired engineer Duane Damiano, a Life Member; retired politician and novelist Caroline Miller; and retirees Paul Buchman and Marsha Abelman.
Secular vote
swayed election?
FFRF issued a preconvention press release about the billboards asking, “With up to 19% of the U.S. population now identifying as nonreligious, when are politicians and candidates going to wake up to the changing demographics and start courting us?”
Exit polls bore out FFRF’s contention that the secular vote can sway the election. Exit polls found that 70% of seculars went for Obama. About 62% of those who never attend church voted for Obama. Obama also won the vote for those who attend only monthly or less. Of those who attend church weekly or more, 59% went for Romney.
According to Pew, Catholics made up a quarter of voters, Protestants 53%, Jews 2%, Muslims and other non-Christian faiths 7% and religiously unaffiliated 12% of the electorate.
The Catholic bishops’ campaign against Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate dented Catholic support for Obama, which went from 54% in 2008 to 50% in 2012 (48% voted for Romney this year).
White Catholic support for Obama dropped from 47% in 2008 to 40% in 2012. It was the Hispanic Catholics who buoyed the Obama vote at 75%, higher even than the secular vote. Fully 57% of the white Protestant vote went to Romney; 79% of white born-again evangelicals voted for Romney, while 95% of black Protestants went for Obama.
See the billboards
To read Annie Laurie Gaylor’s blog, “The Nones have it,” and learn more about the secular vote, go to ffrf.org/news/blog/ and scroll to Nov. 12, 2012.
