Interestingly, the complaint came from the parents of an atheist football player who worried that his playing time might be affected if he didn't participate. True, coaches have all kinds of power over high school players, and simply saying "you don't have to do this," doesn't alleviate much of the pressure to do it if you think it is what the coach really wants. But that is the nature of someone having a lot of power. The same thing happens with teachers who don't force anyone to do anything but let their own views be known-- it can pressure kids to want to get in good with the teacher by agreeing. Not much that can really be done about the basic workings of social pressures short of having all of our children's role models be robots.
But my real interest in this case is different. I can see how a religious person can be harmed by being forced/expected to participate in the rites of another religion. But it is hard to see how an atheist is harmed. After all, the coach regularly tells the players what to do. He makes them run laps, he tells them to huddle up, he leads cheers for the school, whatever. The players are expected to go along with it even if they think it is stupid. And that is really all that happens to an atheist who is part of a prayer huddle-- he does something he thinks is stupid. He isn't in the same position as practitioner/believer of another religion, who might be guilty of blasphemy, idolatry, or some violation of his religious principles by taking part. In his own mind, they aren't talking to anybody, they just think they are. It is a silly show. But no sillier than the rowdy, get fired up huddle before the game. So even if he sort of feels obligated to participate, how has the atheist been harmed by participating?
I think the atheist has been harmed if he is forced to participate in a prayer, but in a different way than a player of a different religion, whose god or religion might forbid it. How has the atheist been harmed? By being forced to pretend. It is degrading. If I were an atheist I might not go to the prayer, or, if I were too timid to risk losing the coach's favor, I might stand there without saying anything. But if I were expected to pray I would feel violated.
Being forced to pretend you believe something you know (or think you know) to be false, or being expected to assure other people that you believe it, is an affront, a humiliation, a degradation. Even if it is slight or a mere feeling that is hard to put your finger on, it is there. It is the feeling of an atheist in a prayer huddle. No, it doesn't hurt him to play along. But it irks him, and rightfully so, to be expected to.
That's how I feel when someone tells me their pronouns. I'm like an atheist who has just been invited/expected to participate in a whole heap of religious bullcrap I don't believe in. No, it won't hurt me to play along, but it rightfully irks me to be expected to. And the same is true of people who ask me to wear a mask when we all know the paper thing they're handing me doesn't do squat. It doesn't really harm me to wear a mask. It is the expectation that I play along with something I believe to be fundamentally false that irks me. Again, in those circumstances, I am like the atheist at the 50 yard line.
I think the SCOTUS got it right. The atheist can't insist that the believer not be a believer. I can be irked by people offering me their pronouns, but I can't claim a constitutional right not to be confronted by them. A coach who offers pronouns is a coach praying to a god I don't believe in. So be it. I can play along or not. And a coach praying to whatever god or God he prays to is doing something an atheist doesn't believe in. Bummer. What we need is basic respect for people's different beliefs rather than a demand that everyone hide their beliefs.
