This is why I don’t do AA

Check out this story from The Fix about alleged discrimination/blacklisting of secular groups within AA.

According to the third tradition of 12-step group Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), “the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.” Theoretically, this would mean the group’s atheist and agnostic members, of which there are a growing number, are welcome, as long as they want to stop drinking. But is that always the case?

A man named Larry Knight is filing a claim against AA World Services and its local chapter in Toronto, Ontario, accusing the organization of discriminating against atheists and agnostics by refusing to list secular groups on the AA website.

Read the whole thing. Let me be clear that I’m not posting this as an attack on AA, which works for a lot of people, just pointing out that it was a barrier that’s kept me away as I manage my own issues with drinking and abstaining from alcohol.

h/t to Peter Grinspoon (@peter_grinspoon)