Along those same lines, here's a sort of recent article from the NY Times about atheists coming together and "coming out of the closet." I'm not fond of that phrasing, because I think that the struggles that young gay men and women face are far, far greater than what atheists face.
Here's a passage talking about the growing number of atheists in America:
"Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.
Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters."