Gov. Nathan Deal
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a discriminatory “religious protection” bill that’s been sitting on his desk for several weeks after passing both houses of the Georgia legislature.
“This is about the character of our state and our people,” Deal said. “Georgia is a welcoming state full of kind and generous people.”
Well, actually it was about money. The state’s major corporations — OK, not Chik-fil-A — but the state’s other major corporations and employers threatened to pull business from the state. Disney, for example, which does quite a bit of filming in the state, said it would move production elsewhere.
“Our people work side by side without regard to the color of our skin, or the religion we adhere to,” Deal said according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We are working to make life better for our families and our communities. That is the character of Georgia. I intend to do my part to keep it that way.”
North Carolina
Lambda Legal is representing Equality North Carolina in a suit against that state’s new anti-LGBT law, House Bill 2, signed by Gov. Pat McCrory earlier this month.
Lambda Legal represents Joaquín Carcaño and Payton Grey McGarry, who are trans, and a lesbian named Angela Gilmore.
“This outrageous new law targets them for no reason other than prejudice and puts them at risk every day for simply living their lives — for going to work and school,” Lambda Legal Legal Director Jon Davidson wrote in a press release. “Let’s be clear: HB2 violates the constitution and federal law.”
Once this gets to the Supreme Court, the discriminatory law will be thrown out and the LGBT community will be given more rights than the North Carolina legislature ever thought of taking away. That will take several years. In the mean time, I reached out to Lambda Legal to find out if they’ll be filing an injunction preventing the law from going into effect while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts.
