FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sue Bentley
773.642.4867, sunsaratour (at) yahoo.com

“UN-ETHICAL” DIS-INVITATION OF SUNSARA TAYLOR BY
CHICAGO'S ETHICAL HUMANIST SOCIETY STANDS
Videographer Arrested Documenting Sunsara Taylor Onsite
Support for Taylor Is Spreading

November 2, 2009 Chicago, IL. In the midst of growing controversy about the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago's (EHSC) cancellation of Sunsara Taylor's long planned talk on the topic “Morality Without Gods,” plainclothes and uniformed police called in by officials of the EHSC dragged out, maced and arrested a man for videotaping Taylor as she stood near her seat and made a statement.

In a statement given the previous day, Taylor challenged the dis-invitation, and announced she would be attending the next day's services prepared to give her talk providing the EHSC with a final opportunity to reverse their decision. She further stated that if they refused, she would give her talk “in exile” at the house of one of EHSC's members.

Sunday, as Taylor calmly made her statement of protest, the president of the EHSC insisted this arrest be made. About 40 people witnessed the videographer being brutalized by the police in the foyer of the facility. An attorney demanded that the police stop brutalizing him when five officers piled on him as he lay face down on the floor. Six police cars arrived within minutes.

Dozens of statements in support of Taylor and in protest of this unprecedented decision by the EHSC were sent to their board. These include Chris Hedges, Esther Kaplan, Cindy Sheehan, Laura Flanders, Jeff Sharlet and many others. Upon hearing of this disinvitation, the Best Church of God, a critically acclaimed comedy and theatre troupe invited Taylor to be part of their final performance this year (on Sunday November 8, 1 pm, at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, Chicago).

Taylor also proceeded to give her talk “in exile” to an audience of 50 in the home of one the EHSC's members who was outraged by the decision to cancel this talk. The talk was on the originally scheduled topic, “Morality Without Gods.”

In her own statement of protest, Taylor wrote this decision was based on “gross mischaracterizations and distortions of my character and of the content of my intended talk. It was pushed through in contradiction to [EHSC’s] own stated principles and in an atmosphere where fear and anti-communism were being aggressively stoked by some members of the Committee.”

Taylor said from the floor yesterday, “given the actions and censorship ETC. it would be more appropriate if the society renamed itself the 'Un-Ethical Society for Anti-Humanism.'”

Many of the support statements raised alarms about the broader implications of such censorship and closing off of critical thinking and debate. Author and New York University media and communications professor, Mark Crispin Miller, wrote, “your decision…if allowed to stand, will represent yet one more victory for ‘safe’ opinion over full and vigorous debate.”

Taylor herself said, “These days, there is all too much self-censorship and acquiescence to the curtailment of unconventional discourse in academic and intellectual life, in political discourse, and on matters of morality and ethics. The decision of the Society must be seen in the context of, and as contributing to, this broader chill and this is why it is unacceptable.”

SUNSARA TAYLOR IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW.

Read the full list of support statements below.
Watch Sunsara Taylor's statement from Saturday, October 30 at youtube link below.

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SUNSARA TAYLOR is a revolutionary voice of a new generation. She is a writer for Revolution newspaper and sits on the Advisory Board of World Can't Wait. She was written about in The New York Times, and appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, CNN's Showbiz Tonight, Fox's Hannity & Colmes, Fox & Friends, the Alan Colmes Radio Show. Taylor has traveled to the front lines and the heart of the controversy around abortion—from the funeral of recently murder abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, leading protests in support of abortion outside Obama’s commencement speech at Notre Dame and disrupting Rick Warren’s sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church . In her 2008-2009 speaking tour, Taylor has spoken and debated at campuses nationally on Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World by Bob Avakian, including the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, Georgia State University , Columbia College and New York University . On October 2nd, Taylor was a speaker at the Atheist Alliance International 2009 convention in Los Angeles .

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