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The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has launched a billboard campaign outing its own members in an effort to destigmatize atheism and agnosticism.

The billboards, on buses and along the Beltline, feature photographs of professed freethinkers and such slogans as "I don't need a god to be happy" and "Being kind with an open mind is my religion."

The group said it is working to take the bus campaign national. The ads began appearing Thursday in Madison as the national organization prepares to welcome about 700 members to its annual convention the weekend of Oct. 29-31.

"It's time to come out of the closet and follow the example of the gay rights movement," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the foundation, which claims 16,000 members around the country.

Gaylor said many freethinkers are afraid to go public because of the hostility toward atheists and agnostics in American society, and that secrecy perpetuates stereotypes.

"It's a lot easier to be hostile to someone you never met than to your next door neighbor," she said.

The 33rd annual convention will feature prominent freethinkers and discussions on such issues as the separation of church and state. Speakers will include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse, who covered the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years for The New York Times; and Somali writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose bestselling memoir "Infidel" chronicles her Muslim childhood and break from an arranged marriage that catapulted her into Dutch politics, feminism and atheism.