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.
The Kim Davis bill is RFRA on steroids.
— Anthony M. Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 20, 2016
Read Sen. Kirk's FADA bill: 1) it is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination 2) it'd gut every local nondiscrimination law in GA #gapol
— Anthony M. Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 20, 2016
3) it'd permit clerks to discriminate against same-sex couples 4) it'd allow taxpayer money to subsidize discriminatory practices #gapol
5) it'd authorize discrimination against state LGB workers, giving shield to those who create hostile work environments. #gapol
— Anthony M. Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 20, 2016
6) it'd allow state contractors to turn away LGBT people & those having sex outside of marriage from services subsidized by public $ #gapol
— Anthony M. Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 20, 2016
The measure is the broadest of the antigay bills filed since the legislative session opened January 11, notes Project Q Atlanta. The others include a Pastor Protection Act, aimed at assuring ministers would not be forced to officiate any wedding that conflicts with their religious views — something already assured by the U.S. Constitution; a state Religious Freedom Restoration Act, allowing broad anti-LGBT discrimination if it’s faith-based, left from the previous session; and a bill allowing small businesses to deny goods or services to weddings they find objectionable.
National and state LGBT groups were quick to condemn Kirk’s bill. “This reckless legislation would have dangerous and far reaching consequences by allowing state government officials to discriminate against same-sex couples and their families,” said a statement issued by Sarah Warbelow, the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director. She also called it a “despicable attempt to mask discrimination against LGBT Georgians and their families with religious freedom.”
Lambda Legal said the bill “encourages discrimination, invites litigation, and collides with fundamental rights protected under the U.S. Constitution.” It would cause “legal havoc between neighbors, employee and employer, community member and government worker, customer and company, and landlord and tenant,” the group continued.
“This bill not only exposes married same-sex couples and their children in Georgia to harm, but it risks imperiling our state’s economy,” said a statement released by Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality and head of Georgia Unites Against Discrimination. “The Metro Atlanta Chamber warned last month that bills opening up gay and transgender people to discrimination could harm our state’s economy by $1 billion.”
Georgia Unites is leading the opposition to Kirk’s bill and other anti-LGBT legislation, while lobbying for statewide antidiscrimination protections. Find out more here.
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