Witches League of Public Awareness
Witches League of Public Awareness International educational organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, which works to end prejudice and bigotry against Witches and Witchcraft, especially in the media.
The Witches League of Public Awareness (WLPA) was organized in 1986 by Salem Witch Laurie Cabotto protest the filming of John Updike’s novel The Witches of Eastwick. The novel concerns three “witches” who are involved with the Devil.
The League networks with major witch groups around the world. It also works with the American Civil Liberties Union regarding religious freedom interests, and with police departments concerning occult crimes not committed by Witches but automatically blamed on them. The WLPA exposed “File 18,” a secret newsletter compiled in the 1980s by a police officer, which constituted an “occult hit list” for police, falsely naming individual Witches and Craft organizations as those who could be suspected of occult crimes.
The WLPA maintains a network of “Information resource People” who act as resource contacts for media and the public and who monitor the media in its portrayal of Witches. Where there are inaccuracies and misrepresentations, the League responds by sending the appropriate educational and legal information.
The WLPA does not handle individual discrimination cases.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca – written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – Copyright © 1989, 1999, 2008 by Visionary Living, Inc.