FFRF chapter updates (Dec. 2025)
Upstate New York Freethinkers
The Upstate New York Freethinkers chapter reports explosive growth, reaching more than 300 members! Our presence is deepening in all seven regions — from Western New York to the Capital District, North Country, Southern Tier and beyond — with new members joining from downstate, neighboring states and Canada. This proves people will travel for freethought!
Chapter momentum allows us to organize regional events, including an “American Freethought” discussion with author David Hoffman and panelist : FFRF Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor, and host Annual Chapter Gatherings, this year featuring a lineup of three keynotes: Gaylor and Dan Barker, and author and columnist Kate Cohen.
We organize local meetups to empower participants in legislative advocacy, supporting crucial bills like New York’s Equal Rights Amendment and the NYS Medical Aid in Dying Act, and join national efforts to ensure public grounds host the Bill of Rights scene rather than religious nativity displays.
Invest in the future of New York freethought by visiting unyft.org/Donate. For confidential inquiries about legacy or major gifts, please email us at info@unyft.org or call 585-454-9921. Our address to mail checks is 620 Park Ave # 209, Rochester, NY 14607.
FFRF East Tennessee
FFRF-East Tennessee co-hosted Katherine Stewart after her appearance at the Scopes Trial event in Chattanooga in July. The event was shared by the Rationalists of East Tennessee, Americans United of Tennessee and the Atheist Society of Knoxville.
In September, FFRF-East Tennessee and the Rationalists of East Tennessee shared a booth at Blount Pride. It was a rainy day, but the turnout was still impressive. Volunteers at the event discovered that the canopy was no longer waterproof, so it was necessary to get creative with the display of materials. A new canopy has been procured and will certainly be helpful for future occasions.
Contact: info@ffrf-etc.org.
FFRF Kentucky Chapter
To set the stage for what happened in Oldham County here in Kentucky, it’s important to know that we are a solid red county where 70 percent of voters voted for our current president, and we had fairly solid intel that at least two of the school board members were strongly sympathetic toward LifeWise Academy trying to gain a foothold in our public schools. LifeWise Academy is an Ohio-based Christian educational program that provides off-site bible education for public school students during school hours under released time laws.
Between Aug. 6, when LifeWise was brought to FFRF Kentucky’s attention, and Aug. 25 for the first actual public airing of LifeWise, we partnered with Kentucky Citizens for Democracy, a local group of Oldham County activists, and Americans United Kentucky, to form a coalition of allies to inform and educate the community about the concerns, risks and dangers of LifeWise Academy.
In preparation for that school board meeting, we worked to ensure that at that meeting we had speakers in place who would address the LifeWise issues from all aspects, including classroom disruption, student disruption in school, peer pressure, as well as concerns and stories from parents and members of the clergy who were against LifeWise.
At that meeting, despite LifeWise having a significant number of people in the audience and a number of speakers, it was clear to most of us that our plan of speaking first and strategically covering all aspects of LifeWise was more effective.
After that meeting, we felt that the school board had enough information that it was likely to vote at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Sept. 22. We set up a meeting with a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter from the Courier-Journal, the largest newspaper in the state, hoping he would take interest in writing an exposé on LifeWise Academy — and he did!
In addition to that, we ran a full-page ad in the local county paper with a public call-to-action that included statements from well-known and respected school administrators, as well as QR codes that linked to school board members’ email addresses and to a 3-minute chalkboard video created locally, which does a good job of explaining what LifeWise Academy is.
Because of the combined social media, newspaper coverage and phone calls to local news media, we had a significant presence and coverage from local news and TV outlets.
Despite our belief that the school board would vote on Sept. 22, it decided to wait until it had direction from the attorney general’s office. The board scheduled a special meeting for Oct. 8 solely to address LifeWise. At that meeting, there were no public comments allowed and it was made clear by each of the board members that, as a result of our efforts, they had received hundreds of emails and voicemails expressing concern about LifeWise from the community. Ultimately, all of the board members, including the two who were sympathetic to LifeWise, voted against allowing LifeWise into the schools.
For more information on the FFRF Kentucky Chapter, contact ffrfky@gmail.com.
