I am reminded of Jon Stewart saying that believers have confused persecution with "not getting your way all the time". While I have had more than one believer tell me that Atheism is a "faith" of sorts...a faith that there really is no God, presumably...I fail to see how one can force a non-belief on someone. Of course, that does not preclude the frequent taunting of believers by Atheists who do tend to be rather smug sometimes in their superiority over those who believe in bronze age fairy tales.

sticks and stones either way

That doesn’t help rid you of your stereotypes.

Atheist, don't believe in God.
That is the definition of an atheist, what ever else they are is unrelated and to blame it on atheism is a non sequitur.