Dear God, Please Tell my Dad that my Other Dad is a Heathen

I knew I was an atheist at twelve years old. It's not the most interesting of stories...not compared to those of gays raised Mormon or Catholics who had an abortion, nonetheless, I knew. My beliefs have proven to be loyal for a good 13 years now.  I did have a brief experimentation with Hinduism which transcended into Zen Buddhism.  The latter of which still somewhat lingers today. In the overall scheme of things however,  I just don't care for anyone or anything that may in any form be referred to as God.
Every month local "active" atheists get together in town and have meetings. Many folk could easily critisize this and call it churchy. Yes, we sit around and listen to someone talk and we donate money for that person's time and for the space facilitated to have the meeting.  What those people don't understand is that we are not against belief.  We are against God. We all have beliefs of our own and we come together and share them. What mostly makes these meetings not churchy at all is the fact that the person speaking is a scholar, a philosopher, a scientist, or often its only a regular person with legitimate doubts and facts to back it all up. Most of us probably passed biology and chemistry with flying colors, and we talk about it.  There's debate and there's always something new to learn.
As an active atheist last night I attended oh-so-sleepily one of these meetings. The speaker was a local freelance writer who had spent time undercover as a homosexual christian and went to extensive therapy programs and even retreats which were offered by radical christian groups to help "cure" him of this horrendous affliction.  I was immediately alert when he spoke of how the unlicensed evangelical therapists often asked participants to cuddle and cradle each other, telling the other that there was no need to act out or to put themselves down, but that ejaculating in a woman's vagina was natural...and it is what God wants. But wait, isn't that what they call original sin?
I'm often baffled by much of what is revealed at these meetings.  In the last meeting I attended we discussed historical studies on chapters of the bible which reveal how the "telephone game" came into play when it was written.  For example: "John told Jonah  that Muhammed was the brother of a guy who said Judas knew his mom and that her neighbor, this guy Jacob, or Jethro, or Jesus something or other was the son of God!"
Last night however, the focus was mainly on many religious affiliates' sheer intolerance for homosexuality.  Here in California this has become a major issue. What with the Mormons funding almost the entire campaign to pass prooposistion 8 last year which made it illegal for same-sex couples to be joined in wedlock. It is still legal for them to declare a domestic partnership but this binding doesnt allow for them to share health insurance or to claim social security or any funds for that matter in the event of the other person's death.  This is the key catch to it all, money.  But how can they not tolerate homosexuality? What if one day an intolerance to people who enjoy fine cheese becomes common practice? I'll be screwed.  I wont be allowed to marry anyone one else who likes cheese (which always turns me on) and then what?  I feel deeply for gays who have suffered any kind of disallowance from their own religions, families, and lives. I can't even begin to express my disappointment in people for disowning somone because of their sexual orientation.  The saddest thing about the whole lesson was that many of the participants believe at the end of these therapies and retreats that they are no longer gay! "God has shown them the correct path, and they are cleansed of the demon." Yes, they exercised the gay out of people. They also gave them intensive electroshock therapy and forced them to look at pornographic images much like a scene from 'A Clockwork Orange'...He had videos. Many of these "survivors" went on to marry and have children. This is the most disturbing to me because that woman, if she loves that man,  will be eternally devastated when she realizes her husband is gay.  Those children will be mocked forever causing irreversible psychological damage.  Why on Earth would anyone allow people to live like this and affect other people so negatively?
All in all last night's meeting only further supported my personal opinion that religions are really just hate groups manefesting hate crimes together and enacting hateful deeds toward people who are different from them and whatever jibberish hullabaloo they chose to make up and try to force on other people.  It re-supported so many things I learned that summer at church camp when I was twelve...