We recently held a Godless Perverts Social Club discussion on Participating in a Resistance Movement. It was a huge success: we think the turnout was bigger than any Social Club we’ve had in our four years of operating, and the conversation was inspiring, practical, and productive. We talked about which issues our community is most concerned about since the election; what actions people can take to resist the rise of fascism and the extreme right-wing — and what actions we’d like the Godless Perverts to organize. Here’s a summary.

What Are We Worried About?

We started by asking which issues people were most concerned about since the election. Those included, in no particular order:

• Global warming
• Loss of rights for trans people
• A rise in hate crimes, violence, harassment, bigotry, discrimination, bullying, and more, against black and brown people, Muslims and ex-Muslims, LGBT people, women, immigrants and people perceived to be immigrants
• Loss of health care funding, including the Affordable Care Act
• Loss of reproductive rights, including birth control and abortion
• Loss of medical care for trans people
• Deportations
• Rollback of LGBT rights
• Rise in racist policing and racist police brutality
• Incompetence and corruption in the Federal government
• Increase in environmental damage
• Global destabilization
• War
• Loss or limitation of free speech and free press
• Registration, walling off, and worse, for Muslims and ex-Muslims
• The general rise of fascism and the U.S. becoming more like Nazi Germany

What Can People Do?

We moved on to talking about what kinds of actions people can take to resist, as individuals, informal groups, communities, and organizations. Those included:

• Take care of ourselves
• Take care of each other
• Photograph or video bad actions, including hate crimes and police misconduct (IMPORTANT to learn rights about this)
• Protest
• Donate money to organizations working on resistance, or supporting those most in danger under the new regime
  • Fundraise for above
  • Volunteer and donate services to above
• Call, write, or lobby in person our representatives, national, state, and local
• Put representatives’ phone numbers in phone so calls are easy
• Pass on calls to contact representatives, including scripts
• Pass on other calls to action
• Letter-writing parties or calling parties
• Sign up for action item notifications with organizations
• Educate selves and others about effective activism
• Signal boost, especially marginalized voices and under-reported news (MAKE SURE information is correct and from reliable sources)
• Educate selves and others about fake news, on left as well as right
• Follow legislative scorecards
• Join credit unions and leave bad banks
• Boycotts
• Have uncomfortable conversations with family, friends, at work or at school
• Educate
• Create culture
• Create and support venues for culture and conversation
• Support local culture, especially created by marginalized people
• Stay connected with the people in your life, in person as well as online
• Give practical help and emotional support to people in your life who are having an especially hard time
• Build support networks for mutual care
• Get to know neighbors and neighborhood
• Celebrate successes
• Create joy, reasons to live, reasons to keep fighting

What Can Godless Perverts Do?

After the break, we talked specifically about what actions we’d like the Godless Perverts to organize. Those included:

• Participate in the nationwide protests the day after Inauguration Day (most likely the one in San Francisco)
• Participate in other protests and demonstrations
• Educational events, such as workshops, talks, and movie nights, on topics such as: the history of other resistance movements, the history of fascism, how to do effective activism and resistance, the medical science of birth control and abortion, sexual options in a world with limited birth control access and where sexual trauma is routinely triggered, other sexual health issues
• Letter-writing and phone call parties to contact representatives
• Create a community skill-sharing database
• Fundraise for other organizations (probably with a focus on local orgs)
• Network with other organizations
• Forward action items from other organizations, such as calling representatives
• Support and boost the signal of other organizations who share our values and goals, such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Black Lives Matter
• Atheist visibility and advocating for atheist rights

Interfaith or Coalition Work With Progressive Religious Groups

We also talked about whether Godless Perverts should do interfaith or coalition work with progressive religious groups that share most of our values. This turned out to be a tricky subject, with widely varying opinions. Some people thought this would be important and valuable, a way to increase our strength, support more people in greater need of support, educate people about atheists, and let more people know we exist. Others thought it would be a dilution of our mission, were skeptical that any religious groups would be willing to work with us, or were concerned about members of our community who have been traumatized by religion and want nothing to do with it. We decided to table the decision for now, and have a separate meetup later about whether to do this, and if so, what limits we’d put on it.

What Can You Do?

If you’re interested in being part of one or more of these events — either to take point or just to participate — please email us and let us know what you’d like to do. We’re all greatly concerned about the direction our country is taking, and we’re ready to take action to resist.