HB 757 Information - A BILL To Be Entitled An Act To Protect Religious Freedoms (Atlanta: home, casinos)

[ChristopherATL]

HB 757, the combination of two "Religious Freedom" bills, has been approved by the Georgia State Senate. This bill would allow anyone to deny services and products to another person based on religious beliefs without legal repercussions. Although this type of legislation has obviously been enacted to retaliate against the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling, this legislation in particular can be used to refuse service to ANYONE, including unwed mothers, interracial couples, blacks, Muslims and yes, the LGBT community. This will create 21st century Jim Crow laws...and we know how bad that will be for Georgia and it's economy.

Here is a link with information on the bill.
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/...-afraid-to-ask

YOU CAN FIGHT THIS BILL and let the Georgia representatives, who hold this bill in their hands right now, that you DEMAND it be stopped. Please, take a moment to make a call, send an email and sign the petition below. Georgia's reputation is already taking a huge hit and major businesses and conventions are threatening to leave the state taking jobs and their money with them. SalesForce, AT&T, Home Depot, Delta, Coca Cola, the entire GA Film Industry and hundred of other businesses, faith leaders and individuals have spoken out against this. We are just now stepping out of this recession and this could destroy decades worth of work making Georgia a top player in industry and commerce. I will continue to post updates to this bill until it is stopped. Find what you can do below. We need all your help. EVERY CALL AND SIGNATURE MATTERS!

Sign The Petition
Georgia Unites Against Discrimination | Tell your lawmakers: Stop all discriminatory religious exemptions legislation in 2016!

David Ralston
House Speaker
404.656.5020
david.ralston@house.ga.gov
dianne.hardin@house.ga.gov

Nathan Deal
Georgia Governor
404-656-1776
https://gov.georgia.gov/webform/cont...-domestic-form

Thank you to everyone who has already offered support in defeating this hateful legislation! Hopefully, we can continue to promote Atlanta and all of Georgia as a place where Old South values of oppression have been replaced with modernity, free thinking, progressive ideals where we will NEVER allow other human beings to be legally discriminated against.

[ChristopherATL]

Originally Posted by wasel

Had breakfast with Rep. Bennett today. He is pretty certain this bill will die. He said the vast majority of reps (even among republicans) are opposed to it. Also, the corporate leadership of Atlanta is very engaged, and the Chamber of Commerce has been hammering for it to die.

That is encouraging and thank you for posting.

[IntentionsRGood]

Mods, please move this thread to the Georgia forum. This legislation is not specific to Atlanta.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by wasel

Had breakfast with Rep. Bennett today. He is pretty certain this bill will die. He said the vast majority of reps (even among republicans) are opposed to it. Also, the corporate leadership of Atlanta is very engaged, and the Chamber of Commerce has been hammering for it to die.

I am glad that Representative Bennett is confident that this bill will die. But it should be noted that Rep. Bennett is a first-year representative who is a member of the Democratic super-minority who won his seat in a special election last year partially by running against the religious liberty issue in a moderately conservative district that is trending moderate and has been targeted for defeat by the Republican supermajority (the seat that Bennett holds was previously occupied by Republican Mike Jacobs who was appointed by Governor Deal to a judgeship on the DeKalb County State Court).

Needless to say, with a total lack of seniority and as a new legislative member of the super-minority party, one can probably reasonably infer that Democratic state Rep. Bennett most likely does not have the inside track on the political strategy and decisions of the Republican supermajority-controlled legislative leadership.

It is well known that Speaker Ralston and Governor Deal are not big fans of this bill for obvious reasons. But with the way that the speaker and the governor have been talking (that changes are being made to the bill instead of coming out hard against the bill and saying that the bill should die), despite the assurances of first-year super-minority Democratic legislator Rep. Bennett, one cannot say for certain that this bill will die.

It seems like the bill in its current form is most likely not going to pass. But with the political calculus (that many, if not most, supermajority Republican legislators needing this bill to pass in order to have the political capital that they will need to tackle issues like increasing transit funding and potential Medicare expansion) it seems like there is a good possibility that a less-controversial version of this bill will pass out of the General Assembly before the session ends.

Word is that Governor Deal and Speaker Ralston seem to be trying to sit on the bill until after qualifying for the primaries ends (the last day to qualify for the 2016 primary is March 11) so that legislators cannot be challenged from their hard-right in the May primary for not voting for this controversial religious liberty bill which is so overwhelmingly popular with the socially conservative and religious base of the GOP....A GOP political base which is extremely energized this year.

[pugdog]

So it is ok for someone to force someone like myself (Muslim) to handle pork and alcohol?
This bill protects us from bullies like yourself.

[ATLTJL]

Realistically speaking, it doesn't matter how many people sign some petition on the internet.

If the legislators pass this bill without caring how much big business the state will lose, do you really think they care what citizens think?

I think it would be funny if businesses used this bill to discriminate against Christians, married people, and whites. Could you also use it to discriminate against ugly people if your religion called for attractiveness?

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by pugdog

So it is ok for someone to force someone like myself (Muslim) to handle pork and alcohol?
This bill protects us from bullies like yourself.

This begs the question: as a Muslim why would you be in the pork and alcohol business to begin with?

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

This begs the question: as a Muslim why would you be in the pork and alcohol business to begin with?

Don't go down that road. Someone could just as easily ask why a gay person would be in a business with an anti gay owner

[2Easy]

The idea of not serving/servicing someone based on their sexual orientation is ridiculous to me and I'm a Christian. It's not even the Christian thing to do. Good luck.

[Born 2 Roll]

Here is one of the main factors that is driving the effort to push this type of red meat legislation in an election year...

(The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Political Insider blog: Georgia voters smash the state’s early voting record)
Georgia voters smash the state’s early voting record | Political Insider blog

More than 400,000 Georgians have already cast ballots for the presidential primary, setting a new state record for in-person early voting.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Friday that at least 405,000 ballots were cast for Tuesday’s presidential primary election, though a breakdown of which party received the ballots and where they were cast won’t be available until Monday. Earlier returns last week showed a majority of the early votes – about 61 percent – went to Republicans.

The previous early voting record was set in 2008 when 271,418 Georgia voters cast ballots in-person ahead of primary day.

Early in-person voting began Feb. 8 and ended Friday, and a surge of interest in the rollicking race for the president has boosted turnout.

The continuing very high level of public interest in the extremely spirited 2016 Republican presidential primary combined with the aftermath of last summer's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide (a court decision that was extremely unpopular in these parts) has energized evangelicals and social conservatives and generated a voracious appetite for this type of very strong religious liberty bill.

The fact that conservative voters so intensely active this year during the primary season does not necessarily seem to bode well for the effort to stop the passage of this bill, despite the building national backlash against it by the business community.