
Rebecca Hensler founded the social media and internet support group "Grief Beyond Belief" for grieving people who do not believe in
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
or an
afterlife in 2011.
She was encouraged to found it by atheist activist
Greta Christina
Greta Christina (born 1961) is an American atheist, blogger, speaker, and author.
Early life
Christina was born in Chicago in 1961. She graduated from Reed College in 1983. She legally changed her name in her twenties, dropping her family name ...
.
Hensler's own son Nathaniel Judah Hensler, also called Jude, died in 2009 after ninety days of life due to a
congenital diaphragmatic hernia
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a birth defect of the diaphragm. The most common type of CDH is a Bochdalek hernia; other types include Morgagni hernia, diaphragm eventration and central tendon defects of the diaphragm. Malformation of ...
. Hensler also published a book called ''The Secular Grief Support Handbook''.
Aside from her atheist activism, she helped found
ACT UP
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy ...
San Francisco, but left when new leaders that discouraged
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...
testing and medications took over.
Hensler has a BA in political activism and a MS in counseling. She works as a school counselor at a public middle school in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, and lives in the Bay Area with her wife.
Hensler has
multiple sclerosis.
She is openly bisexual.
[https://www.lanikaahumanu.com/1993%20MARCH%20ON%20WASHINGTON.pdf ]
References
External links
Grief Beyond Belief website
American atheism activists
Bisexual women
Bisexual writers
HIV/AIDS activists
LGBT people from California
Living people
People with multiple sclerosis
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century atheists
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