Margaret Downey
Margaret Downey was born into a multi-cultural family in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Growing up in a highly prejudiced southern society in the 1950s, Margaret became concerned about persecution from an early age.
She became an openly declared atheist and activist in her twenties. Free from the constraints of religious dogma and patriarchal systems, Margaret became involved with the feminist movement. Margaret fought for basic rights such as freedom of expression, freedom of choice, personal family leave for working parents, equal pay, and promotional opportunities for women.
Being an activist for controversial issues nearly cost Margaret her job thirty-five years ago. The initiatives Margaret worked and sacrificed for then are commonplace today. Even as a single mother Margaret was willing to jeopardize her income to demand respect for women, freedom of choice, freedom of expression, and freedom from religious intrusion.
In 1980 Margaret became a business woman when she established her own interior design service. The independence of being the sole owner of a business enabled Margaret to become more involved in modern day issues. She is active in issues such as maintaining the Jeffersonian wall of church/state separation, freedom from religious intrusion, freedom of choice, and death with dignity.
Margaret founded the Freethought Society (FS) and the Anti-Discrimination Support Network (ADSN) in 1993. FS has taken a strong stand against prayers in public schools, and government sponsored invocations. Through her activism she has assured the placement of freethought literature in university and public libraries, and the avocation of rational thinking. Through city proclamations, Margaret has established “Freethought Week” and “Thomas Paine Day” in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The City of Philadelphia also recognized “Privacy Week” thanks to a proclamation submitted by Margaret in March 1997.
As a free-lance journalist and public speaker Margaret pursues stories of discrimination, choice in dying, humanitarian lifestyles, living as a Secularist, atheism and family planning. Her articles concentrate on activist issues, political and religious satire, separation of church and state, and the advancement of freethought. She has been published in two books, “Parenting Beyond Belief” and “50 Voices of Disbelief.”
ADSN is concerned with discrimination against the atheist community. ADSN monitors public office positions and public schools. In December of 1991 Margaret filed a discrimination case against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) through the Human Relations Commission of Pennsylvania. After nearly eight years she lost her case against BSA. In the U.S. Supreme court case James Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, BSA declared itself “private” to avoid the question of open membership thus ending her appeal and many other court cases against BSA’s discriminatory membership policy. ADSN efforts are responsible for convincing movie producer Steven Spielberg to disassociate himself from BSA.
ADSN acts immediately upon negative stereotyping by writing letters of complaint that demand the offending party to cease hate speech and issue a public apology and/or retraction. Injured parties are serviced through volunteer counselors and attorneys who are sympathetic to the nontheist community. ADSN is compiling a booklet that highlights incidents of bigotry against nontheists living in America. ADSN’s “Erasing Prejudice” program distributes information and training methods in order to develop a national speakers bureau that teaches about tolerance and diversity at elementary, secondary, and university levels.
As ADSN’s founder and president, Margaret has represented the interest of the nontheist community (since 1995) at several United Nations conferences and spoke at the United Nations Freedom of Religion and Belief meeting in New York City. She attended the 2001 United Nations Freedom of Religion and Belief Conference in Madrid, Spain.
Margaret is a past board member of the American Humanist Association (AHA), The Humanist Institute and the Thomas Paine National Historical Association. She is a current board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Scouting For All, the Godless Americans Political Action Committee, Advisory Board Member of the Robert Green Ingersoll Museum, and the Atheist Alliance International (AAI). With these connections Margaret can keep her finger on the pulse of the atheist community. She has become a proud atheist spokesperson and media representative.
In the year 2002, Margaret became the first “Secular Humanist Celebrant” in Pennsylvania. Taking advantage of Pennsylvania’s “Self-Uniting” marriage licenses, Margaret performs godless weddings, naming ceremonies and funerals. Her secular naming ceremony was featured on PBS in 2008.
Margaret has been a guest speaker on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation and Radio Times. She has also been featured on radio programs in Texas, South Carolina, California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, and Georgia, and most recently China.
She is regularly featured at nontheist and skeptic conferences as a speaker.