Rebecca Hensler founded the social media and internet support group "Grief Beyond Belief" for grieving people who do not believe in

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

or an

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...

in 2011. She was encouraged to found it by atheist activist

Greta Christina Greta Christina (born 1961) is an American atheist, blogger, speaker, and author. Early life Christina was born in Chicago in 1961. She graduated from Reed College in 1983. She legally changed her name in her twenties, dropping her family name ...

. Hensler's own son Nathaniel Judah Hensler, also called Jude, died in 2009 after ninety days of life due to a

congenital diaphragmatic hernia Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a birth defect of the diaphragm. The most common type of CDH is a Bochdalek hernia; other types include Morgagni hernia, diaphragm eventration and central tendon defects of the diaphragm. Malformation of ...

. Hensler also published a book called ''The Secular Grief Support Handbook''. Aside from her atheist activism, she helped found

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

San Francisco, but left when new leaders that discouraged

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

testing and medications took over. Hensler has a BA in political activism and a MS in counseling. She works as a school counselor at a public middle school in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and lives in the Bay Area with her wife. Hensler has

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. She is openly bisexual.https://www.lanikaahumanu.com/1993%20MARCH%20ON%20WASHINGTON.pdf

References

External links

Grief Beyond Belief website
American atheism activists Bisexual women Bisexual writers HIV/AIDS activists LGBT people from California Living people People with multiple sclerosis Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century atheists {{US-bio-stub