Legalizing Discrimination in Georgia
Our constitutional freedoms – the basic rights granted to us by our forefathers – determine Georgia's integrity. Our right to speak our minds and organize are important American values that we must protect at all costs. As a Quaker, freedom of religion is something that I personally hold on a very high level. I believe that it is a right for us as citizens to be able to practice whatever faith we would like. It is between these two points that we must find a balance in order to secure liberty for all Georgians.
Unfortunately, Georgia's HB 1023/SB 377, better known as the "Religious Freedom Bills," breaks the balance that we have fought so hard to maintain. This bill ultimately will legalize discrimination, and, of course, discrimination is terrible.
Let's take for example, a man named Danny. Danny is a conservative, radical zealot who, in short, has a strong dislike, hate, even, for anyone who isn't like himself. Danny also owns a restaurant. One day, during service, Jan and Mary Beth, both of whom are partnered to one another, decide to come into his restaurant. While in other states, this would be all well and fine - seeing as how Danny actually would have no right to kick them out of his restaurant. But here's the catch. With implementation of "religious freedom" Danny is now able to blatantly able to kick the fine couple out of his establishment, simply because he finds homosexuality "an affront and heinous act that goes against his religious beliefs"
But the buck just doesn't stop there. Not only is Georgia not well known for its acceptance of the LGBT community outside of the perimeter, but we're, sadly, also not known for our acceptance of anything other than WASP-y people - white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. So what does this mean? Well it means that not only can Danny kick out the lesbian couple, but he's also able to kick out anyone who isn't his skin color, or anyone he deems, as mentioned above, "against his religious beliefs". Children, women, men, the elderly - anyone that isn't like him.
While in reality, protecting the religious rights of the people is important - this law essentially favors the majority. Which, yet again, as stated above for Georgia would be white Christians. Now, I wonder why exactly we're making these steps essentially back into the civil rights era. Is it because the minority is slowly overtaking the majority? Is it because extreme conservatives are so embedded in their own absurd beliefs that they refuse to accept anyone else's way of thinking?
At the end of the day, the answer is - it doesn't matter the reason. People are put here on earth for one reason, and we all want to achieve that reason. This, obviously, is to be happy. It saddens me that in such a historically peaceful time across the world, that the human race can't get past its own beliefs to accept those of anyone else - and acceptance doesn't mean you have to think like someone else, believe what they believe, worship the way they worship, or even love who they love. Acceptance is unconditional love for your fellow human-kind. It's respecting them no matter what they think, no matter how they view things, or no matter if they love a man or a woman. That is acceptance, and it's something that isn't that hard to achieve.
We should take heed of these blatant attempts to pull the wool over our eyes. After all, you can put makeup on a pig, but it's still a pig. And this is one big pig. Trying to allow public discrimination under the guise of religion is one of the most deceitful things a person can do. People like this end up becoming religious zealots, muddling the true value of religion for people. Morphing it in to some sort of twisted vehicle for people to hate freely. But religion is supposed to be an escape. It's supposed to inspire, and give hope to the hopeless. My personal belief is that no higher power would ever condone such despicable acts toward others. If this Religious Freedom Bill were to pass, the minority just falls even further by the wayside. This means all the work put in by civil rights forefathers is essentially null and void. If Georgians can become untied in the pursuit of progress, we will be able to always keep the balance between the freedom of and the freedom from religion when we look at this law. Only then can we stay true to our American values, our constitutional rights, and Georgia's integrity.
Reposted from State Senator Curt Thompson's blog (D-5th). He resides in Tucker, GA and is Chairman of the Special Judiciary Committee. Make sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. His website is www.makingyourvoicecount.com
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