Friend:

There’s nothing that gives me hope for the future of church-state separation and our democracy like interacting with young people who are engaged in our issue. This past Wednesday, I enjoyed speaking with the students in a religious liberty class at Georgetown University…wait for it…IN PERSON!

The professor invited me to speak about the relationship between religious freedom and LGBTQ equality—something we’re all too familiar with. Religious freedom isn’t at odds with LGBTQ equality, but it’s too often presented that way. As you know, Americans United has been battling a wave of emboldened religious extremists and their lawmaker allies who are misusing religious freedom as a license to discriminate. To illustrate that religious freedom requires limits to the free exercise of religion, I opened with one of my favorite quotes from the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which she included in her brilliant dissent in the Hobby Lobby case: “[W]ith respect to free exercise claims…your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”

I also explained how it isn’t just LGBTQ people who are harmed when religious freedom is weaponized. Unfortunately, our current docket of legal cases does a great job of explaining how religious minorities, the nonreligious, people of color, women—and all of us—are at risk when religious freedom turns into religious privilege.

These students “got it”—as did the Rutgers Law School students I spoke with along with Congressman Jamie Raskin two weeks ago. And so do our talented Youth Organizing Fellows—emerging activists who have joined AU’s program to help youth organizers grow as leaders, building power for our movement into the future. We have now had two successful classes of Fellows, and applications for the 2022-23 cohort of Youth Fellows are open again as of this week. If you know an 18-25 year old who would be interested in this exciting (and paid!) opportunity, please encourage them to apply!

At a time when we’re facing attacks from so many directions on a core tenet of our democracy, it’s more important than ever that AU continues to invest in a new generation of leaders to hold our country to its promise of freedom without favor and equality without exception.

With hope and gratitude,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO