The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie oppose State Issue 1 and ask that you vote NO on August 8th.
Continue reading “We Ask You To Vote No On August 8th”We Ask You To Vote No On August 8th
SHoWLE Asks Local Media To Stop Running False Anti-Abortion Ad
The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie are asking local media in Northwest Ohio to stop airing the TV ad by the anti-abortion group “Protect Women Ohio” because it is a false ad.
In that ad that began airing March 15th, a narrator speaks:
“Your daughter is young vulnerable online. You fear the worst. Pushed to change her sex or to get an abortion. You have some right to help her through this but activists want to take all that away. Under their proposed amendment to the Ohio. Constitution the state shall not interfere with individuals getting abortions or sex changes meaning you could be cut out of the Biggest decision of her life.”
Audio of Protect Women Ohio: Fear the Worst 3/15/2023
Forcing daughters to get sex changes or abortions appears no where in the actual text of the proposed amendment.
FULL TEXT OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT
Be it Resolved by the People of the State of Ohio that Article I of the Ohio Constitution is amended to add the following Section:
Article I, Section 22. The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety
A. Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on:
contraception;
fertility treatment;
continuing one’s own pregnancy;
miscarriage care;
and abortion.B. The State shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either:
An individual’s voluntary exercise of this right or
A person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individual’s health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care.
However, abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability. But in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.C. As used in this Section:
“Fetal viability” means “the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures. This is determined on a case-by-case basis.”
“State” includes any governmental entity and any political subdivision.D. This Section is self-executing.
Text of proposed amendment as approved by Ohio ballot board March 2023
Sex reassignment surgery is not mentioned at all. The proposed amendment only covers individual reproductive choices. The anti-abortion ad also selectively quotes the petition saying the state “shall not interfere” to fear monger to parents who demand tight control on their children. The “protect women” group is simply lying.
Local media need to stop running the ad. Advocacy ads are not covered by federal law or covered by the first amendment. We aren’t talking about a difference of opinion we are talking about a false ad.
Are ad dollars more important than the truth?
Broadcast media are granted a license to use the public airways in the public interest. Passing off a false ad that advocates taking rights away from people is not acting in the public interest.
About Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
The mission of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is to provide a supportive local community for humanists and other nontheists, while promoting an ethical, reasonable, and secular approach to life through education, community service, outreach, activism, and social events.
We envision a Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan where secular people are respected and integrated in broader society, live values of reason and compassion, and enjoy a friendly humanist community.
Media Contacts
Douglas Berger – President
567-215-2694
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Glass City Humanist Coming To Toledo Radio
We are pleased to announce that starting soon, the Glass City Humanist podcast, an outreach of Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie, will be making a 1 hour monthly program that will be heard on WAKT 106.1 FM in Toledo and on the Internet.
We Act Radio is a community radio station giving the residents of Toledo a way to know each other through music, talk, and other forms of programming. The content is generated by the community and by request of the community. It provides a voice for communities that may not have a voice in the media.
Glass City Humanist, produced and hosted by SHoWLE President Douglas Berger, will use the time on WAKT to introduce Humanism and the group to a bigger audience in Toledo and by extention listeners to the radio website. The exact content won’t differ too much from the content heard on the podcast but GCH will be able to do different things that might not be possible with just the podcast.
“We plan on doing things like asking for listener questions that will be read in the next episode,” the host Douglas Berger said. “We will also be able to interview people in a proper studio instead of just on Zoom or my house.”
There also might be chance at some future point to do a live show.
Details are still being finalized and we will let everyone know when the shows will start airing.
For more information about Glass City Humanist visit https://glasscityhumanist.show and for more information about We Act Radio WAKT 106.1 check out https://toledoradio.org
SHoWLE Bans Weapons At Meetings
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2022
Toledo, Ohio – The Board of Directors of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) voted to ban weapons from all meetings and events it hosts.
The resolution reads in part: “We wish to provide a safe space where, for a short time, people don’t have to worry about being shot or killed by a deadly weapon. Even if the venue where we hold our meetings and events allow weapons, SHoWLE will enforce a ban on weapons. We will also try not to use any venue for meetings or events that we know allow weapons. People who believe their right to carry a gun outweighs the safety of our community are not welcome at our meetings or events.”
The weapons ban fits in with the group’s humanist values.
“This ban aligns with our values of peace and social justice, empathy, and service and participation,” Douglas Berger, President of SHoWLE said. “We have been concerned, for sometime, about the inaction of the Ohio legislature to address gun violence and how some political leaders wild west ideas of the rugged individual strutting down the street packing heat is outdated and the inaction is terrible, on a daily basis, for many families in our community. We felt we needed to do something and the ban is what we decided.”
SHoWLE also supports evidence based actions and policies that will address the tragic cost of unchecked gun violence.
The ban takes effect immediately and exceptions will be made for sworn law enforcement officers conducting official business.
About Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
The mission of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is to provide a supportive local community for humanists and other nontheists, while promoting an ethical, reasonable, and secular approach to life through education, community service, outreach, activism, and social events.
We envision a Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan where secular people are respected and integrated in broader society, live values of reason and compassion, and enjoy a friendly humanist community.
Media Contact
Douglas Berger – President
567-302-0209
#
The full text of the Resolution can be found on our Policies and Resolution page
SHoWLE Objects to Bedford Public Schools forcing kids to attend a religious event
Bedford Public Schools is forcing children to attend an assembly during the school day put on by a religious group in the guise of suicide prevention. Instead of allowing parents to opt-in to an event where kids will be “invited” to attend a church service after school, parents must opt-out. The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie strongly opposes these assemblies that attempt to circumvent church and state separation by disguising the religious aspect under an important issue like suicide prevention of character building.
Carry the Cure is a non-profit organization that utilizes clinical tools, cultural traditions, and faith-based methods to offer communities comprehensive suicide & abuse prevention and healthy life-choice skills. Carry the Cure doesn’t offer any science based tools that most schools don’t already know and use to help prevent children from committing suicide.
Groups like Carry the Cure offer schools a free assembly on an important topic like suicide and during the program invite the kids in the audience to another event either after school or at a local church where sermons, testimony, and other religious services not allowed at the assembly during the school day.
SHoWLE believes issues like suicide prevention and character building are important and some of that can be addressed in the school, but we object strongly to a religious group being allowed to present a fake assembly to be used to indoctrinate children in religion later. We also object that the fake assembly is mandatory and requires the parents to opt-out. Any program, especially if it involves a religious group, should always be opt-in with the parents fully informed as to purpose of the program, the group providing the program, and any other questions that arise.
Bedford Public Schools made an error is approving Carry the Cure to perform their fake assembly during the school day and to force children to attend.
Statement Concerning the Leaked SCOTUS Abortion Case Decision
Our right to privacy is now in danger
Like many in this country the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie were heartbroken by the content of the Dobbs decision of the US Supreme Court when it was leaked in May. It completely guts a woman’s right to abortion under 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision.
We knew this was a possibility from the decades long effort by religious zealots to overturn the case and send us back to the time of secret back-alley abortions that led to unnecessary deaths.
To be truthful, abortions will still happen, but the abortions will be less safe. Those who are caught in poverty will be worse off and women becoming pregnant due to a rape or incest will have no other options to terminate their pregnancy.
The decision also hints at future attacks on same sex marriage, sodomy, and contraception. Religious zealots want to stomp all of that out and people like Justice Alito, Thomas, and the other conservatives on the court are more than happy to help.
Religious conservatives believe wearing masks and not being allowed to pray in a church during a pandemic is a severe violation of their religious freedom, yet they don’t think twice in using their religion to justify taking fundamental rights from all of us. With this decision, our right to privacy is in danger.
SHoWLE strongly condemns the Dobbs decision. We will never stop supporting a woman’s right to reproductive choice and everyone’s right to privacy.
We also repeat our intention not to work with ANY group that doesn’t support a woman’s right to make her own health care choices. We also will refuse to work with groups who don’t support a right to privacy.
We know it is a big ask to boycott Ohio, which is poised to end legal abortion, but if a business isn’t able to leave or refuse to do business in states that ban abortion, we at least ask those businesses to strongly express their support for a woman’s right to choose and offer to help employees obtain abortions in states where it will be legal.
Besides contacting your elected representatives and supporting any protests against taking the right to choose from women, we also ask that you donate to local abortion groups who help those with less resources to get the care they need.
The Agnes Reynolds Jackson Fund (focuses on NW Ohio and Toledo)
National Network of Abortion Funds
Updated on 06/24/2022 when the decision was officially handed down
The vote to overturn Roe was 5-4. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito’s opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts did not join the opinion. He agreed with the majority that the Mississippi abortion restriction at issue in the case should be upheld, but in a separate opinion, he argued that the court should not have overturned Roe.
The court’s three liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, filed a joint dissent.
Supreme Court overturns constitutional right to abortion
Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie Condemns Ohio HB 616
The Board of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie urges legislators and our community members to oppose Ohio House Bill 616.
HB 616 eliminates the ability to teach on and discuss topics like sexual orientation, gender identity, and race. If enacted, HB 616 would attempt to erase discussion of the history and lived experiences of marginalized communities and students. The bill’s broad language will have a chilling effect on learning environments.
HB 616’s definition of anti-racist concepts like diversity, equity, and inclusion as “inherently racist” and its explicit mentions of intersectionality and critical race theory suggest a focus on the sensibilities of a narrow group of adults, rather than deep engagement with the needs and concerns of teachers and students in Ohio’s K-3 classrooms.
Humanists “commit to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity” and “long for and strive toward a world of mutual care and concern” (The Third Humanist Manifesto). HB 616 directly contradicts our core values by attempting to legislate away any discussion of already marginalized groups.
Listening to people’s stories is at the heart of acknowledging each person’s inherent worth. We can only move toward a world of mutual care by cultivating empathy; empathy cannot be cultivated when the stories, experiences, and histories of marginalized groups are made unspeakable.
It is for these reasons that the Board of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie condemns this bill and others like it.
We also encourage our members to communicate with their State House Representative. You can find your representative by entering your address at the Ohio House of Representatives website.
Further information about the bill can be found here:
House Bill 616 @ Equality Ohio
House Bill 616 @ Honesty for Ohio Education
Tip of the hat to the Humanist Community of Central Ohio for sharing the format of their statement used above.
SHoWLE Condemns Invasion of Ukraine by Russia
Toledo, February 24, 2022 –
The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie are heart broken that Russia has unjustly invaded the Ukraine. We condemn Russia’s actions.
Unjust war is the failure of people to find common ground and consensus to live peaceably. All people should stand against the use of warfare to boost ego or settle old scores.
SHoWLE believes that the solution to this naked use of warfare will only be solved by people and not through thoughts and prayers. There needs to be large scale sanctions like excluding Russia from all international organizations they belong to such as sport federations.
A country wanting to be a good international neighbor doesn’t start a war for no rational reason.
It is disappointing that the international community didn’t act sooner to address Russia’s human rights violations.
SHoWLE will support groups whose mission is to aid innocent people caught in the crossfire.
Our thoughts go out to the people of the Ukraine and we hope this human rights violation by Russia ends quickly and any loss of life is low.
About Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
The mission of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is to provide a supportive local community for humanists and other nontheists, while promoting an ethical, reasonable, and secular approach to life through education, community service, outreach, activism, and social events.
We envision a Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan where secular people are respected and integrated in broader society, live values of reason and compassion, and enjoy a friendly humanist community.
Media Contacts
Douglas Berger – President
567-302-0209
#
SHoWLE To Host Demonstration on World Humanist Day
*** For immediate release ***
Toledo Humanists Sponsor Demonstration at Courthouse for World Humanist Day
State and local politicians need to stop ignoring science in pandemic response
Toledo, June 15, 2021 –
Last week the story about the Doctor who told an Ohio House committee about how they believed the covid vaccine made one magnetized made Ohio the laughing stock of the world. But this is just another instance where ignoring science has made this pandemic last much longer than it should.
Politicians in the state house have for years thought they knew more than scientists and medical professionals as they hacked away at the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices. During the pandemic many of these same political rays of light have undermined the state’s response to the pandemic and put economics over people.
The gerrymandering that put the Republican party in a super majority in Columbus against the actual number of votes they got in recent elections is an existential threat to the people of Ohio. Politicians make sure that Amazon, which pays little in taxes, gets taxpayer funded infrastructure and tax breaks while Average Joe arbitrarily gets $300 of pandemic unemployment funds taken away to force him to work a job that pays less than what he got from unemployment.
Enough is enough. June 21st is World Humanist Day and one guiding principle of Humanism is to not ignore science and medical experts during a pandemic. Humanists believe that we should put people ahead of profit and we need to stop finding ways people struggling economically don’t deserve help.
The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie will be hosting a demonstration on Monday June 21st at Noon in front of the 10 Commandments monument at the Lucas County Courthouse at the corner of Adams and Erie St. Bring your signs and banners to show your views.
We are demanding politicians stop ignoring science and hurting people by stripping away their rights. We also want our elected officials to worry more about people and less about parasite businesses that pay little to no taxes. We all need to pay our fair share and the legislators in Columbus need to stop enacting laws through the state budget to avoid our right to petition the government for redress of grievances. If the politicians in Columbus are worried so much about law and order that they need to make protesting a felony maybe they need to get their own house in order and start holding people accountable.
Ohio needs a serious change in behavior if it doesn’t want to continue to lose residents. This is 2021 not 1951. Enough is enough.
About Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
The mission of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is to provide a supportive local community for humanists and other nontheists, while promoting an ethical, reasonable, and secular approach to life through education, community service, outreach, activism, and social events.
We envision a Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan where secular people are respected and integrated in broader society, live values of reason and compassion, and enjoy a friendly humanist community.
Media Contacts
Douglas Berger – President
567-215-2694
#
A Response to Richard Dawkins Transphobic Tweet
**** For Immediate Release ****
April 12, 2021 – Toledo, Ohio:
We are extremely disappointed in the recent transphobic Tweet by Richard Dawkins who is a well known scientist and spokesperson for those of us in the freethought community.
Mr. Dawkins wrongly equated a white woman who committed fraud by claiming to be black with transgender people as if they are lying about who they are and should experience backlash.
Mr. Dawkins also wrongly attempted to make his views on transgender people as something that can be debated like a question about culture or flavor of ice cream.
Mr. Dawkins demeaned and dehumanized an entire subset of people and this is not the first time he has expressed a contrary view about whole groups of people based on nothing but his own biases.
The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie can’t stand by without responding. Richard Dawkins doesn’t speak for SHoWLE or any of our members.
Going forward SHoWLE will not promote or support any project or event that involves Mr. Dawkins. We will ask the Center for Inquiry to remove him from their board of directors and spin off the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science housed at CFI. We would like CFI to make a strong statement against Dawkins remarks.
Richard Dawkins has benefited from his fame and status in our community and the things he says can effect other people for good and bad. Degrading any humans is totally against our Humanist values and we feel Richard Dawkins needs to apologize and step away from the public eye completely.
For reference: Richard Dawkins is Still Denying the Basic Humanity of Trans People
About Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie
The mission of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is to provide a supportive local community for humanists and other nontheists, while promoting an ethical, reasonable, and secular approach to life through education, community service, outreach, activism, and social events.
We envision a Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan where secular people are respected and integrated in broader society, live values of reason and compassion, and enjoy a friendly humanist community.
Media Contacts
Douglas Berger – President
567-215-2694