WTF Georgia, Part One: Senate Passes Sweeping Anti-LGBT Bill

Late last week, the Georgia Senate approved a new, ahem, "religious freedom" bill that will allow faith-based organizations to discriminate against LGBT people because the Baby Jeebus loves discrimination.

The measure, approved 38-14 after three hours of debate, came as its sponsor, Republican Senator Greg Kirk it from critics who said it would gut LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinances in place in companies and cities around the state; opponents worried that the legislation will spark an economic boycott of the state. But Greg Kirk says … wait for it, it’s rich … his bill "is a live and let live bill."

"We as a state are full of hospitality and we have room for all people. This legislation is about equal protection and not discrimination. I want you to understand this bill is all about equal protection. It only impacts the government's interaction with faith-based organizations or a person who holds a sincerely held religious belief specifically as it relates to marriage. It is very narrow, it is very focused."—Greg Kirk

It’s about inclusion, unless you’re a faith-based organization that doesn’t like The Gays, and then the government can’t do anything about it.

Then Greg Kirk advised his fellow lawmakers to go to church on Sunday and tell their pastors how they voted on the bill.

Separation of Church and State does not exist in Georgia politics, or in Georgia at all, I guess.

Senator Bill Cowsert, the Republican Majority Leader, echoed Kirk’s assertion that the bill is a “live and let live” type of legislation, because it allows people of faith, business of faith, faith-based businesses and organization to tell The Gays they are not welcome at all.

How in the hell is that live and let live? Seriously, Georgia, WTF?

But the legislation isn't just anti-LGBT; in effect, it allows any individual or “faith-based” business, non-profit entity, or taxpayer-funded organization to ignore any law that conflicts with their religious beliefs about marriage. 

If this law passes, then, in Georgia, a single mother and her child could be denied safety at the domestic violence shelter; a hospital could deny a man the opportunity to say goodbye to his dying husband; a cemetery corporation could deny an interracial couple a shared cemetery plot; a restaurant could refuseg to allow a child’s birthday party because his parents are divorced; an unmarried couple and their child could be denied a room at a hotel late at night after their car broke down.

Live and let live, as long as you follow the very narrow guidelines of the Christian faith, because I can guarantee this bill does not apply to Muslims or Jews or Buddhists or atheists or agnostics.

Project Q Atlanta