[news] Secular Coalition will bring lobbyists to Virginia Capitol by 2013 to advance atheist views

source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/secular-coalition-will-bring-lobbyists-to-virginia-capitol-by-2013-to-advance-atheist-views/2012/05/30/gJQAKe4Q2U_story.html 

RICHMOND, Va. — A national secular group is planning to have a lobbying interest in Virginia by next January with an unabashedly godless agenda.

Virginia is among the first group of states the Secular Coalition for America is targeting for opening chapters with trained lobbyists in the statehouses.

Spokeswoman Lauren Youngblood says SCA will focus on the states because that's where the group sees the most egregious legislation emerging. SCA already lobbies Congress and federal agencies in Washington, espousing secular public laws free of religious influence.

The group this year spoke out against Virginia legislation that shields religious-affiliated child-placement organizations from being forced to place adoptive children with same-sex couples.

Youngblood says she knows SCA will face a chilly reception in Virginia and other Bible Belt capitals and is prepared for it.

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