Sweeping 'License to Discriminate' Bill Proposed in Georgia

A Georgia state senator has introduced a bill based on the First Amendment Defense Act, pending at the federal level, that would allow businesses and individuals, including government employees, to discriminate against same-sex couples and LGBT people generally in the name of religion.

Sen. Greg Kirk, a Republican and former Southern Baptist minister, introduced the bill today, reports Project Q Atlanta. "The bill would amend state law 'to prohibit discriminatory action against a person who believes, speaks, or acts in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman or that the sexual relations are properly reserved to such marriage,'" the publication reports.

The legislation would, among other things, allow state employees and state contractors to discriminate, and it would make LGBT state workers vulnerable to discrimination, according to Anthony M. Kreis, a law professor at the University of Georgia, who analyzed the legislation and sent out a series of tweets about it, calling it a "Kim Davis bill," referring to the Kentucky county clerk who famously objected to issuing marriage licneses to same-sex couples.