Source: The New York Times

On September 19, 2000, The New York Times reported that "the bumper sticker on the sedan parked in front of Suzanne and Duke Egbert's house declares, 'We Are Everywhere.' 'We' refers to contemporary pagans, whose spiritual paths lead them to regard nature as divinely charged. To raise the public profile of pagans -- and try to gain them broader acceptance -- the Egberts and others have established Pagan Pride Day, to be celebrated with events in cities in the United States and Canada timed to coincide roughly with the autumn...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On September 19, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "it's Pagan Pride Day, and hundreds of witches are out of the broom closet, flying high. In a meeting room at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Long Beach, a priestess of the Yoruban goddess Yemaya is teaching an enraptured group of four men and four women how to read Tarot cards. The priestess, June Gerron from Orange, is telling her class that the woman-with-a-lion card is often interpreted as 'power over your animal self--grrrrr!'...At the gathering Saturday, all...

Source: The Denver Post

On September 17, 2000, The Denver Post reported that "for two millennia, pagans have lived on the spiritual periphery, their Earth-based faith demonized by mainstream religions. 'The Christian church has spent 2,000 years making 'witches' and 'pagans' bad words because we are the religion that lost the war (between paganism and Christianity),' says Denver psychotherapist Judith Brownlee, who is also a witch. 'Anthropologists will tell you that any time a culture comes in, takes over and ousts an older culture, the gods and goddesses...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On September 15, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "Goddess Trio Crafts a Handbook on Pagan Rituals for the Family."

Source: The Times-Picayune

n August 14, 2000, The Times-Picayune published an article on "Monte Plaisance, a self-proclaimed witch and High Priest of Wicca who runs a coven in Houma, where he plans to open a museum that he says will contain one of the rarest collections of witchcraft and pagan artifacts in the country. He has been displaying some of the artifacts in his occult shop in Houma one weekend a month." Some, such as the Rev. Velvet Rieth, High Priestess at Covenant of the Pentacle Wiccan Church in New Orleans,are worried about the museum and the...

Source: Star Tribune

On August 5, 2000, the Star Tribune reported on the eighth annual St. Louis Pagan Picnic, sponsored by the Council for Alternative Spiritual Traditions (CAST). The event drew over 2,000 to Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, and included vendors from all over the country in addition to informal workshops on subjects such as a "Teen Chat on Paganism" and the "Pros and Cons of Coming out of the Broom Closet." Picnic organizer Kris Dolgos explained that while it is great for the Pagan community to get together, it is not the only reason for...

Source: ABCNEWS.com

On August 4, 2000, ABCNEWS.com published an article entitled "Witchcraft Museum Brewing: Collection of Witch Artifacts May Have Home in New Orleans"

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On July 14, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle published an article entitled "Finally, Pagans Have Their Dr. Spock," about the recently published book Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On April 16, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle published an article entitled, "Witch Hunt in a Public School."

Source: The Courier-Journal

On March 31, 2000, The Courier-Journal reported that Brandi Lehman, a senior at Elwood Community High School in Indiana, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Elwood Community School Corp. for forcing her to stop participating in a student-teaching program because she wore a pentagram. Jacquelyn Bowie, attorney for the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, is defending Lehman in her case. Bowie stated: "They [the school] can't ban it unless they show it's going to cause a disturbance, and they haven't done that."

Source: South Bend Tribune

On March 15, 2000 the South Bend Tribune reported that "freshman Irma Patton was sent home Friday from Clark High School [in Hammond, Indiana] for repeatedly refusing to remove or place tape over her pentagram ring and button. School officials insist that pentagrams are gang symbols... worn by members of Chicago's Latin Kings gang... Irma Patton insists she does not belong to a gang. She and her mother, Wanda Patton, are both followers of Wicca - a pagan nature religion... 'They're violating our rights for what we are,' Wanda...

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 5, 2000, The Boston Globe published an article on a student club at Bridgewater State College called WICCA, Witches Interactive College Community Association. It is one of the few collegiate student organizations in the country dedicated to Witches. The WICCA office only knows of other active clubs at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island and one that operates at Florida State University. Raven, a Bridgewater State student who started WICCA, tells of the few problems he has had in starting the organization: "I...

Source: The New York Times

On February 13, 2000, The New York Times published an article on the increasing popularity of Wicca among American teenagers, most of whom are female. Wren Walker, creator of the Witches' Voice web site, estimates that 35 percent of the total visitors to the site are under 18. The company's web page for teenagers, "So Ya Wanna Be a Witch," has drawn 175,000 visitors in the last two years. Walker stated that witchcraft is, "especially appealing to the young people who want to be active participants in their own spiritual lives."...

Source: Star Tribune

On January 22, 2000, the Star Tribune reported that "the Goddess Committee, of Northern Dawn Council, Covenant of the Goddess (COG), Minneapolis, rented...three billboards to explain their faith to the public." The billboards are not meant to gain converts, but to raise awareness about religious freedom and the Pagan faith. "The three boards, two in St. Paul and one in Minneapolis, say 'The Goddess is Alive and Magic is Afoot,' 'The Goddess is Within,' or 'Embrace the Goddess.' They are not full side billboards but are displayed...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 15, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that Shari Eicher, who teaches 11th grade English at Scotland High School in Laurinburg, NC, was suspended with pay indefinitely for her Wiccan beliefs. Eicher has stated that she did not talk to her students about Wicca. Her and her husband, Richard, have been practicing Wiccans since 1998.