Image courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
You may have already gotten the memo that you won’t find God on Metro. But just in case, the Freedom From Religion Foundation wants to remind you.
The organization has a new advertising campaign on Metro trains, Bikeshare bikes, PTRC commuter buses, and garages that say “I’m an Atheist and I Vote” before the forthcoming Reason Rally at the Lincoln Memorial on June 4 and the D.C. Democratic Primary on June 14. The ads will run through June 6.
“We’re blanketing the District with images of young secular voters, to show the faces of the fastest-growing voter demographic in America,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor in a release. In a survey of 8,000 members, the organization found that 96 percent of them are registered to vote. According to Census numbers from 2014, a little more than 64 percent of total Americans are registered to vote.
Speakers at the Reason Rally, billed as the “biggest gathering of nonreligious people in history,” include Johnny Depp and Bill Nye. A 2015 Gallup poll finds that 19.6 percent of Americans have no religious identification, up from 14.6 percent in 2008.
Updated to reflect that the ad campaigns will be on PTRC buses, not Metrobuses, which do not allow advocacy advertisements.
Rachel Kurzius