Welcome to the home of the Reed College Freethinkers. Leslie Zukor founded the Freethinkers after she took a year off from Wellesley College and transferred to Reed College, closer to her Washington home. At Wellesley, Zukor was President of the Wellesley Alliance For Life, and it was there where she had her first encounters with the Religious Right.
Raised in progressive Mercer Island, Washington, Zukor thought she was a conservative. That was, until she met staunchly conservative Catholics in Boston who preached against birth control at the same time while opposing abortion.
She saw firsthand how Religious Right groups, such as Pregnancy Resource Centers, were getting faith-based grants from the Bush administration to teach about sex education. Many of these centers were Catholic and they taught abstinence only. Thinking this was a mistake and wanting connection to people who thought more like she did, Zukor started the Reed College Freethinkers.
