Zack Kopplin Accepts Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award

June 7, 2012 By 14 Comments

Last week, I mentioned that Zack Kopplin, the former high school student who worked to repeal the wrongly-named “Louisiana Science Education Act,” was going to receive the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award.

He just accepted it the other day (at the Playboy Mansion) and there’s now video of his talk (ignore the squawks):

Nice speech, Zack!

Filed Under: Education, General, Science 14 Comments
About Hemant Mehta

Hemant Mehta is the chair of Foundation Beyond Belief and a high school math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He began writing the Friendly Atheist blog in 2006. His latest book is called The Young Atheist's Survival Guide.

  • Fsq

    Five…..four….three….two….one….

    And cue the squawiking feminists about the awards ceremony being held at *gasp* The Playboy Mansion…

    Congrats to the kid!

    And I am just dying to hear how the feminists either:

    a) rationalize this out

    or

    b) take the secualr/atheist community to task for allowing this to take place at The PlayBoy Mansion (cue the nefarious organ and piano music while the bad guy twists his Snidely Whiplash mustache)

    • CS42

       Why do you think it is necessary to show up in almost every thread, making unprovoked taunts and attacks on feminists?  Did it ever occur to you that you’re the problem, not them?

      Making this blog a hostile environment is absolutely uncalled for.

      • Fsq

        I do this to point out that the atheist/secular movement should not be co-opted. Also to point out the obvious hypocrisy with the feminist side.

        Also, go read the blog entries over the last few days. It is resoundlingly pushing an agenda that the atheist and secualr movemonet should not be going in. So, no, it is not trolling, it is combating a growing problem that is going to cause a schism in the atheist and secular movements.

        ANd frankly, after being called every name in the book, being told to go fuck myself with a rusty chainsaw and other lovely sentiments from the feminist community, I find it a bit sad that someone would try to defend it.

        • CS42

          Feminists are not co-opting the secular and atheist movement.  Like it or not, social movements are linked and part of the same discussion and one will come up in a area dedicated to another from time to time.

          There are people throwing irrational temper-tantrums every time women or feminism is brought up, then drag that tantrum into every conversation, co-opting the entire blog with their histrionics.

          If your disagreement with feminism means you think it’s appropriate to create a hostile environment, then that tells me that it is important to keep defending feminism.

          • Fsq

            Oh, so using the same defense tactics employed by your side of the fence makes it “irrational temper-tantrums”? How pitfully hypocritical, and just so typical.

            Hoenstly, do you ever listen to yourselves? You sound like christian apologists. You just substitute the words “religion” with “feminism” and you are hard-pressed to tell the difference. Also, most of the actual arguments employed by the feminist movement is not grounded in FACT. Just like religion.

            I find it an ominous threat to the atheist community that it is being co-opted by splinter groups and side arenas. There is no reason we cannot work together when appropriate, but to claim the atheist movement is intertwined and feminist is insulting, arbitrary and dangerous.

            And, where is the outcry over the awards ceremony being held at an overtly misogynistic (accoring to feminists)

            • Fsq

              …location?

              Where is the consistency from you?

              There is a huge push right now, by people like Hemant, Adam Lee, Pee-PeeZ Myers et al to turn the atheist movement into something IT SHOULD NOT BE. They are going to alienate more than they will bring in, and we as a group will lose political say and power.

              Fight your battles on your grounds, and come over here to concentrate on the battles relevant to atheism and secualrism and separation of chruch and state.

              • pandurata

                Wait… the person who brought the subject of feminism into this thread
                has been you, not some “evil” feminist. And then you whine about how the
                topic is taking over the discussion in the community?

                Boy, you appear to have a serious problem if you cannot wait for someone
                else to bring this into a discussion but must throw it out there
                yourself again and again in the hopes of someone taking the bait and
                finally enabling you to blurp out your long held-back “See? I told you
                so!”

                • Fsq

                  where is the outrage? This event was held at Playboy Mansion. No outrage?

                  Hypocrite.

                  And all you do is try and go ad hom and distract from the real issue of the hypocrisy.

                  This is why the atheist movement is going to lose steam. It is being swiped by other interests that are not consistent or logical.

                • http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/ Hemant Mehta

                  I don’t see nude women walking around. It seems like a pretty PG function.

                • Fsq

                  Oh come on Hemant. Really? Because no nude women are around, it is all of the sudden OK to support that which is being so readily screamed at here? Go back to the Huslter blog post and see how that went over.

                  This is glaring hypocrisy, and to try and brush it off with “no nude women” is silly and disingenuous.

            • CS42

               Yes, “irrational temper-tantrums:”  Unprovoked shouting, name-calling, paranoid conspiracy theories, accusations, drawing sides where there needn’t be any, belittling other people, straw-men and false-comparisons.  I don’t know what this feminist agenda is that you find so frightening, but the bad behavior is absurd and uncalled for.

    • http://squeakysoapbox.com/ Rich Wilson

      *yawn*

  • BrentSTL

    Say what you will about Hugh Hefner (and I’m sure quite a bit has been said over the years) and his magazine, but he’s always been a champion of the First Amendment.

  • http://readythreadsew.wordpress.com/ Joolz

     Zack gave a great speech (even with the distracting squawks).    I don’t give a toss that the award was given at the Playboy mansion – actually that’s a slight lie – I’m jealous that he got to vist the mansion because it’s now almost an historical site.  He probably got to see some “behind the scenes” stuff because he was an honoured guest (even if those scenes were just the kitchen, or wherever).