Non Fluffy Wicca

After trying just about every possible appeal to common sense, fundamental fairness, constitutional rights, etc. to various congressmen, senators, the VA, the National Cemetery Administration, stories on just about every major media outlet, outraged veterans, etc., the only ones who would listen were the politicians of Nevada, who straight out overruled the VA, allowing the pentacle on any veterans' tombstone in any cemeteries on state land. One down, 49 to go.

But why did we have to go this far? Why did the Sikhs get an emblem within a week of asking, and Wiccans have waited 9 years and been strung along, kept from pushing the point legally due to the requirement that there be an actual DECISION to appeal. In quite the creative and clever twist, the ACLU have found a way around that. Kudos to the ACLU for their quite innovating approach.

Pagans Sue on Emblem for Graves - New York Times:


Military veterans are entitled to have their headstones engraved by the government with a symbol of their religion. Families of the deceased may choose from emblems representing a variety of 18 Christian churches, a number of Buddhist sects, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and atheism (represented by an atom with an A inside) — 38 religious symbols in all.

But not the Wiccan pentacle, which the Department of Veterans Affairs has neither approved nor disallowed despite various petitions over the last nine years.

Yesterday three Wiccan families and two Wiccan churches sued to force the department to include their symbol — a five-pointed star inside a circle — on the list of approved emblems.

Wiccans, also called pagans, are often wrongly confused with Satanists. Theirs is a nature-based religion recognized by the Internal Revenue Service, and by the military itself in its chaplains’ handbooks and on the dog tags that troops wear around their necks. There are an increasing number of Wiccans (pronounced WIK-ens) in the armed forces — 1,800, according to a Pentagon survey cited in the suit.