Because of the lively competition for presidency, politics are at the forefront of many minds. Because of this exposure, very little is happening in the political world that the general public is not aware of, particularly when it concerns their state of residency.
For Georgia, the focus is on the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which was passed by the Georgia Senate February 19. This amendment is intended to guard the religious freedoms of companies that receive state funding. Under FADA, companies that have a strong moral objection or are religiously conflicted towards a persons personal choices are legally allowed to deny that person(s) access.
This bill directly impacts the LGBTQ community, single mothers, interracial couples and anyone else who does not fit the mold of a conventional marriage. Maggie Garrett, the Legislative Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, pointed out that no one was safe from the bill.
“Just a few possible outcomes: an unwed mother and her child being denied safety at the domestic violence shelter, a hospital denying one man’s wish to say a final goodbye to his dying husband; a cemetery refusing to sell a plot to an interracial couple,” Garret said.
These state-funded organizations that survive off of the money gathered from taxes will now be able to legally reject tax-paying citizens based on religious and moral preferences. Some people will be paying taxes so that they can be rejected. If history has taught us anything, it is that discrimination of any sort is never a proper choice.
As the daughter of a lesbian couple, I am ashamed to call Georgia my home. I also worry about the amount of hate and hostility my mother may have to come in contact with. To make it worse, this hate will be legally protected. Just last summer, the LGBTQ community celebrated their biggest victory yet: the freedom to legally marry. Not even a year later, Georgia senators have voted to place discrimination disguised as religious freedom as more important. Once again, a group that has been fighting for acceptance has been targeted.
While I personally take offense to the negative impact this bill with have on the LGBTQ community, the negative impact reaches much farther. Racism will be protected, as will sexism and any other form of discrimination with a religious backing. The LGBTQ community may have the loudest voice of distaste towards the bill, but I am certain several more will join as the true effects of the bill begin to trickle down into Georgia communities.
There is no evidence — including none presented in your Opinion — that religious organizations will subject your mother and her lover to hate and humiliation.
Not only is it untrue, and an unsupported and insupportable overreaction, but it actually expresses the animosity and gratuitous vitriol that pro-LGBTQ activists have for those who hold religious beliefs.
Some of the meanest and angriest people I have ever met in my life are LGBTQ activists. And I have lived on this earth twice as long as you.
There is no close second.