Georgia is poised to pass the nation’s harshest “religious freedom” law

[tay]

allowing discrimination, judicial obstruction, and even domestic violence. Yet while the bill is far worse than Arizona’s notorious “Turn the Gays Away” bill, it’s attracted far less attention from national advocacy groups and businesses.


The bill, the “Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” is one of a raft of similar bills (RFRAs, for short) wending their way through state legislatures across the country. The bills are part of the backlash against same-sex marriage, but they go much farther than that. Like the Hobby Lobby decision, which allows closely-held corporations to opt out of part of Obamacare, these laws carve out exemptions to all kinds of laws if a person (or corporation) offers a religious reason for not obeying them.


For example? Restaurants could refuse to serve gay or interracial couples, city clerks could refuse to marry interfaith couples, hotels could keep out Jews, housing developments could keep out black people (Genesis 9:18-27), pharmacies could refuse to dispense birth control, banquet halls could turn away gay weddings, schools could specifically allow anti-gay bullying, and employers could fire anyone for any “religious” reason.


The national movement to pass these laws is well-funded and well-coordinated; most of the laws are written by the same handful of conservative legal hacks in Washington, working for organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom and Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, both of which have had a hand in the Georgia bill.


Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, said in an interview with The Daily Beast that “in the last two years, there have been 35 bills introduced around the country to establish or expand a RFRA. And there have been over 80 bills filed that specifically allow for discrimination against gay and trans communities.”


Oddly, the most effective forces in killing Arizona’s “Turn The Gays Away” bill—corporations and the Chamber of Commerce—seem to be sitting this battle out. Maybe it’s because Arizona was bidding on a Super Bowl and Georgia isn’t. Or maybe it’s because no one is paying attention. But for whatever reason, the corporate silence is deafening.


This is especially the case for Coca-Cola, which has spent millions to brand itself as pro-gay (remember that Super Bowl ad?) but has been mum on the Georgia bill.


“For now, it appears that Coca-Cola has


a relationship of convenience with the gay community,” said Bryan Long, executive director of the progressive organization Better Georgia, in an email to The Daily Beast. “The company promotes equality when it serves the brand but won’t stand up for us when we need it most.”




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Georgia Bill Helps Wife Beaters - The Daily Beast

 

[B00Mer]

I wouldn't worry about it... you don't live in Georgia.

Not a good law.. but it's a backward part of the USA.. deep south.

 

[Sal]

it's of concern that there are that many people who wish to pass laws to limit others freedom

 

[SLM]

it's of concern that there are that many people who wish to pass laws to limit others freedom

Are there? In my experience, ignorance tends to be loud but not necessarily strong. Apathy, now that's a force to be reckoned with.

“in the last two years, there have been 35 bills introduced around the country to establish or expand a RFRA. And there have been over 80 bills filed that specifically allow for discrimination against gay and trans communities.”

Okay, so how many have been passed?

 

[Sal]

Are there? In my experience, ignorance tends to be loud but not necessarily strong. Apathy, now that's a force to be reckoned with.

agreed, ignorance does tend to be loud, the problem with that ignorance is that it tends to be led by very bright individuals with personal agendas that have little to nothing to do with the actual issues and everything to do with their personal power and control and money gain

I see it on FB with some nice average individuals who are super anti-Obama, they have all their little memes lined up, they post them on their walls and people swarm all over them to press the "like" button...they have zero capability of actually analyzing the twist within the meme because it appeals to their emotion and what they think they believe and the like swarm just reinforces that

that's the best way to control and manipulate, those are the buttons to push and the primary one to dig into is fear combined with emotion and the need to belong to the group which is of course part of the desire to survive so it's a built in response

get a few leaders with that and things can go to hell fast

look at Hilter, he did it with a whole country...the time needs to be right and wham

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

look at Hilter, he did it with a whole country...the time needs to be right and wham

And one of the most civilised countries in Europe, or the world, at that.

 

[Sal]

And one of the most civilised countries in Europe, or the world, at that.

yes civilized sophisticated people who were hungry and desparate = scared

 

[Ludlow]

agreed, ignorance does tend to be loud, the problem with that ignorance is that it tends to be led by very bright individuals with personal agendas that have little to nothing to do with the actual issues and everything to do with their personal power and control and money gain

I see it on FB with some nice average individuals who are super anti-Obama, they have all their little memes lined up, they post them on their walls and people swarm all over them to press the "like" button...they have zero capability of actually analyzing the twist within the meme because it appeals to their emotion and what they think they believe and the like swarm just reinforces that

that's the best way to control and manipulate, those are the buttons to push and the primary one to dig into is fear combined with emotion and the need to belong to the group which is of course part of the desire to survive so it's a built in response

get a few leaders with that and things can go to hell fast

look at Hilter, he did it with a whole country...the time needs to be right and wham

The need to belong, to fit in. Has a lot to do with many things.

 

[Sal]

The need to belong, to fit in. Has a lot to do with many things.

it does, and the primary one is survival...it's a built in response you just have to figure out how to trigger it in various individuals

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

yes civilized sophisticated people who were hungry and desparate

The speed with which they threw over their civilised system and established hate, violence, and fascism was the really scary part.

Perhaps the best news of our times is, the recent recession notwithstanding, we're doing OK. Add a real economic collapse to the attitudes we see circulating, and it could get ugly.

 

[Sal]

The speed with which they threw over their civilised system and established hate, violence, and fascism was the really scary part.

Perhaps the best news of our times is, the recent recession notwithstanding, we're doing OK. Add a real economic collapse to the attitudes we see circulating, and it could get ugly.

yes any type of economic collapse would be perfect to make the time right

 

[Cannuck]

it's of concern that there are that many people who wish to pass laws to limit others freedom

...and there are so many people that support that type of thinking regardless of where they live.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

By the way, I actually read the Georgia bill, and let's just say that the OP is basically arm-waving hysterics. Reminds me of every time they pass a continuity of government law, the hysterics start screaming that the sitting President is going to cancel elections and make himself President-for-Life. People have been shrieking that for at least 30 years to my positive knowledge.

 

[Ludlow]

Yes here in Arizona the culture feuds and whining is a 24/7 pastime. Sometimes you just want to hook up a loud speaker and scream to the top of your lungs, "SHUT THE FVCK UP!". It's just this thing that if you're not in my group or my culture or of my socio-economic-political mindset , or,,quite honestly, my culture, then you're my natural enemy. Here's a little experiment. Put a group of toddlers together. From the families of every ethnic persuasion, culture and belief system. Put them on a playground with plenty of toys and activities they can do together. If the hate a prejudice of their parents hasn't infected then yet, watch how they interact and get along. Then ask yourself who displays a greater sense of maturity. ....I've told my kids when I win the lottery I'm moving to another country somewhere,,,where there is a sense of tranquilty and harmony. It may be on another planet.

 

[darkbeaver]

Conversations very often get centered arround poor old Mr A Histler, the offered benchmark for bad. Of course history, as shoveled into minds, isn't. If we believe that in the ninety-two years since that troubled mans election the world has not seen worse and lives it right now as we speak I think we are quite mistaken. Crucifying Hitler today will not get our laundry done.

 

[tay]

One of the most irritating aspects of the campaign to legalize anti-gay discrimination in the guise of “religious liberty” is the fact that anti-gay activists are so snidely mendacious about their true aims. Legislators from Arizona to Indiana have openly conceded that the intent of their bills is to protect business owners, like florists and bakers, from having to serve gay couples. Yet the right-wing media continues to sneeringly insist that anyone who detects discriminatory intent behind “religious liberty” legislation is, in one writer’s childish words, “a complete idiot.”




On Thursday, however, the façade fell away. During a Georgia House Judiciary Committee debate over the state’s new religious freedom bill, Rep. Mike Jacobs—a Republican!—called anti-gay legislators’ bluff. Jacobs proposed a simple amendment to the legislation clarifying that it must not be interpreted to legalize discrimination. Conservative representatives cried foul, asserting that an anti-discrimination amendment would defeat the purpose of the bill. When the amendment narrowly passed, conservatives quickly tabled the bill, postponing its consideration indefinitely. A religious freedom measure with an anti-discrimination provision, they decided, was not a real religious freedom measure at all.


This kerfuffle is both illuminating and, frankly, satisfying for those of us who have maintained that discrimination was the actual purpose of these bills all along. After the campaign to defeat Arizona’s religious liberty bill succeeded, the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway called those of us who viewed the measure as discriminatory—that would include me—“ignorant,” “dumb, uneducated, and eager to deceive.” Never mind the fact that Arizona legislators openly declared that the bill’s purpose was to let businesses turn away gay couples, baking discrimination into the measure’s legislative history in a way state courts can’t ignore. In the topsy-turvy sophistry of the far right, heeding committee minutes qualified as “ignorance,” while ignoring the stated intent of a bill qualified as intelligence.


But if anti-gay conservatives have any intellectual integrity, Thursday’s Georgia dispute should put an end to this charade. Jacobs, the representative who introduced the anti-discrimination amendment, is no flaming liberal; he is a moderate Republican who was legitimately concerned that a broad measure protecting businesses’ “religious exercise” could function as a license to discriminate. If Georgia’s religious freedom bill truly wasn’t designed to legalize discrimination, this amendment would have been utterly uncontroversial. Instead, it spurred heated opposition from conservatives, who refused to support any religious liberty bill that explicitly forbade discrimination.


There’s one interesting (and revealing) coda to the Georgia conflict. Eric Erickson, a viciously anti-gay Christian commentator, has long supported the Georgia legislation in the name of religious rights.


But on Thursday, his wording suddenly shifted: Now the Georgia bill was about protecting Christians’ rights. This unsubtle revision may be due to the fact that Jacobs, the sponsor of the anti-discrimination amendment, is Jewish. In a vitriolic blog post following the vote, Erickson slammed Jacobs as “the man who wants to deny protection to Christian businesses.” Not religious businesses—Christian ones.


You’d have to be deaf not to hear that dog whistle, and you’d have to be blind not to see the desperation in Erickson and co.’s maneuvering. On Wednesday, I noted that millions of devout believers are standing up to defend their faith against those who seek to coopt it for discriminatory purposes. Included among these millions are myriad religious groups and faith leaders—including the esteemed Anti-Defamation League—who are insulted by the notion that bigotry is a component of religious liberty. Champions of intolerance are losing, and losing badly. For a while, they found a way to shroud their goals in duplicity. Now the guise has collapsed—and everyone, even Georgia Republicans, can see the glaring animus driving this callous campaign.




Georgia legislators admit religious liberty bill is about discrimination.

 

[gerryh]

Legislators should not have to be introducing bills to protect people that want to live and operate their businesses under their own "moral" code. The way this is becoming, is that LGBT's should have the freedom and right to live the way they want, but any one else...fu ck you, you do it my way or else.

 

[Ludlow]

Yes my persecution complex is greater than your persecution complex.

 

[gerryh]

Yes my persecution complex is greater than your persecution complex.

Still nothing intelligent, I see.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Legislators should not have to be introducing bills to protect people that want to live and operate their businesses under their own "moral" code. The way this is becoming, is that LGBT's should have the freedom and right to live the way they want, but any one else...fu ck you, you do it my way or else.

Payback's a bitch.