Public relations director or American Atheists comes out as transgender

[Thumpalumpacus]

I look forward to the day when this sort of news is wholly unremarkable.

Just ten years ago I might have said, "well good luck with that," but given the recent changes in how gays are perceived and treated legally, I expect it will eventually become, as you say, unremarkable.

Atheism has never exactly been a philosophy, but there is a tradition of atheists taking up unpopular causes which conflict with the Bible. Early feminism and abolition in the U.S. spring to mind. There's nothing like making moral choices with mind and gut, rather than gut and bronze age book for making moral progress.

I've said for a long time that the gay rights movement is our natural ally in this age. Let's face it, atheists and gays are two of the last groups against whom discrimination is not only accepted, but applauded, here in America.

And myself, I take a page from Donne when it comes to thinking about our civil rights:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

The denial of rights doesn't just affect the repressed party; it affects us all.

[Whateverist]

Is that an argument in favour of conformity, whateverist?

Not the way I was thinking about it. I think of tolerance as encouraging diversity.