The American Humanist Association's new leader has a unique history with the group

Fish Stark, son of the first openly humanist member of Congress, will be the next executive director of the AHA

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After nearly a year and a half without an executive director, the American Humanist Association, I can exclusively report, has just hired a new leader.

Fish Stark (above) is a 29-year-old organizer, educator, and lifelong humanist. His connections to the broader secular movement are extensive, but they’re also unique because, in 2007, his father became something of an icon in our world.

Pete Stark was a California congressman for over 40 years. Before he died, in 2020, at age 88, he became the first openly non-religious politician on Capitol Hill. He made that announcement in 2007 at the prodding of the Secular Coalition for America.

Stark called himself a Unitarian, but he made clear he was explicitly non-theistic. If he was worried about backlash, however, it never came. Most people in the political sphere responded with a shrug, if anything. Even when Stark voted against reaffirming “In God We Trust” as our national motto in 2011, making him one of the only members of Congress on that side of the vote, his open non-religiosity never really came back to hurt him.

In 2017, Rep. Jared Huffman, also from California, followed in Stark’s footsteps and went public about his own humanism, a move that opened the floodgates quite a bit. Even if we haven’t seen more open atheists on Capitol Hill, we’ve seen a slow but growing acceptance of alternative religious viewpoints. There’s even a Congressional Freethought Caucus on Capitol Hill with over two dozen members. It’s hard to imagine any of that could have happened without Pete Stark’s openness.

That ability to be unafraid, and that willingness to pave a new path forward, were some of the qualities Fish admired most about his father. In fact, he was in the audience at the AHA’s convention in 2008, when his father was given the group’s “Humanist of the Year” award. Stark’s career is a large part of why Fish wanted to dedicate his life to giving back to his community.

Growing up in a political household, and after graduating from Ivy League institutions, including a stint as a student board member for the Yale Humanist Community, Fish considered running for office himself, but he ended up fighting for causes he supports in other ways. (I’ll continue calling him by his first name in this article to avoid confusion with his father.)

Chris Stedman was the founding director of the Yale Humanist Community, and he told me he was he was “thrilled to see one of our former student leaders take on such an important role in humanism.” He added: “I look forward to seeing where he takes the American Humanist Association, especially given the urgency of this moment and the role humanists can and should be playing in promoting vital values like critical thinking and compassion.”

Those values have been baked into much of his life so far. In an interview with me last week, Fish talked about his various jobs promoting mental health awareness and progressive causes. Most recently, he worked with the educational technology startup Legends, where he helped create products to help kids “build self-confidence, positive mental health, and critical thinking skills.” He also worked with Peace First, a non-profit that “provides training and funding to youth social justice activists.” Even if he never ran for office, he has managed campaigns for progressive candidates.

When he’s not working for causes he supports, he dabbles in stand-up comedy (how could you NOT with a name like Fish?) and was even a contestant on a short-lived FOX game show called “Snake Oil” that was like “Shark Tank” where contestants had to figure out which “inventors” were lying. (His celebrity partner on the show was Will Arnett.)

So what does all that mean for the American Humanist Association?

It means they’re going to be led by someone who hasn’t necessary been in the secular movement but who has spent his life living out the group’s principles.

Fish told me he wants the AHA to focus on helping people find community, giving members ways to flourish in their lives by expressing their secular values, and fighting for social justice. (Those are views shared by the AHA’s new Board President, Candace Gorman, the author of The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too. Her presidency was announced last week.)

When Fish was younger, he actually considered Christianity because of that feeling of belonging, and he’s still attracted to Unitarianism because of its strong sense of community. Humanism, however, gives him a way to live out his values while still comporting with scientific realities.

All of that may be personal, but it’ll play out with the future of the organization. Fish said his short-term priorities included giving members tools to push back against Christian Nationalism and Project 2025, helping them building larger and stronger communities, and emphasizing the positive aspects of humanism. The community aspect may be the most crucial in the long-term, too, since we’ve seen what social isolation can do to people, especially young men who may be red-pilled and drawn to the right.

That doesn’t mean the AHA plans to ignore legal battles.

For years, they had a legal center that was filing important lawsuits, one of which even made it to the Supreme Court. But after the center’s director left a couple of years ago, the AHA effectively stopped filing new lawsuits (though they’re still working with allies in continuing cases).

Will the legal center return?

Fish told me he plans to convene an advisory board to figure out the best path forward. There’s no shortage of legal battles to fight, but with the right-wing lurch of the federal courts, it’s important to choose your battles wisely. Also, the AHA doesn’t want to just duplicate the efforts of other church/state separation groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United, American Atheists, all of whom have dedicated lawyers on staff.

I also asked Fish for his thoughts about a controversy that embroiled the AHA a couple of years ago.

In 2021, Richard Dawkins tweeted that transgender people “choose” their identities, comparing them to Rachel Dolezal, who lied about her race. In response, the American Humanist Association retroactively withdrew the Humanist of the Year award they gave him in 1996. It was a purely symbolic gesture—I dare anyone to name recent recipients of the same award—but it received enormous attention.

I argued at the time that it was the right move. It’s not like Dawkins didn’t know what he was doing; if anything, he’s only become more transphobic since those tweets. The AHA revoking that honor was their way of saying they didn’t stand with Dawkins and that he didn’t represent their brand of humanism.

Fish agreed with that analysis. Dawkins has a right to free speech, of course, but that shouldn’t insulate him from the consequences of his statement: “We don’t have a responsibility to give him a trophy for it,” Fish said. There was always room under the AHA tent for good-faith disagreements, he added, but after Dawkins doubled-down on his comments, the AHA had no obligation to keeping hoisting him up as worthy of praise. Revoking their earlier honor was the only card they could play; as I have argued before, a press release wouldn’t have had the same impact.

The importance of being able to determine your own identity was something Fish understood at a young age. His birth name wasn’t one he felt attached to, and when he was a child, he adopted the name “Fish,” which was a mashup of his initials. His parents weren’t thrilled at the time, but the name stuck.

“Nobody ever forgets the name Fish Stark,” he joked, adding that everyone should be able to present themselves to the world as they see fit without being condemned for it by people coming from a place of ignorance.

He wasn’t planning on leading the AHA, but when he saw the job opening, he knew it could be a great fit. Not just because of his coincidental history with the group through his father, but because it combined so many different threads in his life.

As he takes on this new role, Fish has the support of AHA leaders, past and present. Nicole Carr, who served as the AHA’s Interim Executive Director until now, said this of Fish:

He brings a nuanced understanding of humanism, an activist spirit, and experience in motivating young people to get involved. Our board and staff are enthusiastic about reinvigorating the AHA’s members and supporters to do the work that is so crucial at this time for the secular movement and our country.

Roy Speckhardt, who served as AHA’s executive director for over 16 years, told me he was thrilled with Fish’s appointment and that he was “convinced that Fish will be a game changer for the AHA, humanism, and the wider secular and atheist community.”

His charisma, vision, and history with humanism, combined with a deep understanding of our movement’s need to reach people of all identities and lived experiences, will propel him to a level of leadership our movement has never seen.

Rob Boston, who has served on AHA’s board since 2009, added that he was “confident that Fish is the leader we need at precisely the time we need him.”

Fish is ready to step into that role and meet those expectations. “We’re gonna get pretty aggressive,” he said, speaking of white Christian Nationalism. The group plans to mobilize members who are deeply concerned about Project 2025 and build on the activism the group has been known for over the past several decades.

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