Tech company to leave Georgia after religious freedom bill passed

[josephpalazzo]

ATLANTA â€"

One local company says it's moving its headquarters out of Georgia. The controversial religious freedom bill passed in the state Senate Friday, and a Decatur telecom startup is calling the legislation discriminatory to gays and lesbians.

The co-founder of 373K, Kelvin Williams, wants to prevent the company's tax dollars from supporting a state that he believes encourages discrimination.

"That's just something that we can't live with," Williams said.

Republican State Senator Greg Kirk sponsored the bill that combines the Pastor Protection Act and the so-called First Amendment Defense Act.

"The legislation is about equal protection and not discrimination," Kirk said.

The senator from Americus says it gives faith-based organizations like adoption agencies the right to refuse services to gay or lesbian couples.

It would also protect pastors from having to marry same sex couples.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition of Georgia supports the measures.

"It protects people's conscious, and it protects their religious practice," Faith and Freedom Coalition of Georgia Executive Director Dave Baker said. "It makes sure no one would be forced by government to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs."

State Rep. John Lewis disagrees with the legislation.

"We must recognize and respect the dignity and the worth of every human being. We all are children of God," Lewis said.

Williams says his diverse co-workers, gay and straight, support the company's move to Nevada.

"It's time to check your calendars. It's 2016. This is not the world that we need to have anymore," Williams said. "We need to be about inclusion of people from all different walks of life."

Tech company to leave Georgia after religious freedom bill passed

Is this constitutional? Any lawyer?

[drunkenshoe]

Are we sure there isn't anything else behind the curtains, anything that will improve the company after the move, but also can be marketed this way for a political support esp. in this climate? I'd think so.

Anyway, this seems to fit the 'corporate personhood' I guess.

[Hydra009]

Tech company to leave Georgia after religious freedom bill passed

Is this constitutional? Any lawyer?

I'm no lawyer, so I'm not 100% on this, but the Equal Protection clause applies only to federal/state/local government and not to private businesses.  And while there is legislation mandating that private businesses not discriminate on the basis of race or religion or national origin, it doesn't cover sexual orientation.  So while it's very screwed up for a private business or religious organization to refuse service to certain groups of people, it's not actually unconstitutional.

[SGOS]

"The legislation is about equal protection and not discrimination," Kirk said.

Well fine and dandy then.  No discrimination at all.  Nope, none!  "We just want everyone to be equal."

[josephpalazzo]

Yep, the bill is referred as  "religious freedom", that's how they cloak their discrimination. This is how Christians want to pretend they are persecuted, but underneath there is an unfathomable depth of hate.

[Hakurei Reimu]

"The legislation is about equal protection and not discrimination," Kirk said.

The senator from Americus says it gives faith-based organizations like adoption agencies the right to refuse services to gay or lesbian couples.

That's a textbook example of discrimination. It's like posting "No Niggers Allowed" on your store front, and then claiming the right to refuse services to black people. A gay or lesbian couple's money is just as green as a straight couple, and there's no reason to believe they not just as loving, either. Just take the money and let that soothe your precious little consciousnesses.

Money is the root of all evil? Hah! In this case, appealing to basic human greed gives a more moral outcome!

It would also protect pastors from having to marry same sex couples.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't want to be married by a pastor who hated my union with my SO. Fortunately, a pastor is irrelevant to marriage, legally speaking. You're actually married by the state. The pastor just performs the ceremony. That applies to straight couples, too.

What a steaming pile. I'd like to see ten straight couples boycott every pastor that refuses to marry a gay/lesbian couple. We'd see how closely they adhere to their "religious freedom" should they become completely marginalized. (Not holding breath for this.)

[drunkenshoe]

That's a textbook example of discrimination. It's like posting "No Niggers Allowed" on your store front, and then claiming the right to refuse services to black people.

These people believe/think that some people choose to be 'gays and lesbians' just because they want or they are sexual deviants, but they still can't claim that black people choose to be black for some evil agenda. So that anology falls flat with them I guess. The way they see it, there is no discrimination: people can 'stop' being gays and lesbians and get the services, but black people can't stop being black. 

[mauricio]

Trying to force pastors to marry gay couples when it goes against their believes is stupid and wrong. Your actual rights to form the marriage contract do not need a pastor and are already protected by the goverment (or it should be like that if it is not) if you want a symbolic ceremony maybe pick one that actually aligns with your believes rather than forcing others to comply to your believes against their own. There's many religious people who accept gays now, they can marry you if you really want a ceremony based on cherry picked dogma as to no longer be homophobic like it was for 1000s of years.

[Unbeliever]

"It makes sure no one would be forced by government to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs."

Why the hell are "religious beliefs" so sacrosanct, anyway?

[mauricio]

Why the hell are "religious beliefs" so sacrosanct, anyway?

Its called self determination.

[TomFoolery]

Trying to force pastors to marry gay couples when it goes against their believes is stupid and wrong.

People hold up the idea of pastors being forced to marry people, but I thought the bill also included freedoms for any taxpayer funded, faith-based nonprofit or agency (adoption agencies, schools, hospitals, etc.) to discriminate against the LGBT community specifically.

[mauricio]

People hold up the idea of pastors being forced to marry people, but I thought the bill also included freedoms for any taxpayer funded, faith-based nonprofit or agency (adoption agencies, schools, hospitals, etc.) to discriminate against the LGBT community specifically.

Well if you mean the adoption thing, in those cases i think those agencies should be public not private (or treated as such) and they should only discriminate based on scientific facts to find the best possible outcome for society.

Also if the church where the gay marriage is supposed to happen is public it should be allowed to host gay wedding but you cannot force the pastor to do it himself. You do not have a right to a wedding ceremony by that conservative pastor just to equal rights before the law which are set in the marriage contract provided by the goverment on their goverment facilities. Though i guess if the pastor is a public employee then he should do it or resign to any goverment salary. Though i think this is impossible in a secular country like the USA? Do you actually have public goverment funded churches?

[TomFoolery]

Do you actually have public goverment funded churches?

Not directly, but many churches and religious organizations run things like daycares, women's shelters, health clinics, food pantries, adoption agencies, etc. that are subsidized by taxes. Thanks to this bill, gay people can be discriminated at such organizations. Some might say, well they can just go somewhere else... A lot of Georgia is pretty rural. So, maybe not if the next nearest food pantry is 50 miles away.

[Baruch]

Its called self determination.

I agree.  The most self determined people are the criminals.  And if I make a religion of my crimes, then I am scott free.  This happens all the time ... the Elite are most successful in this sociopathy.

The purpose of the law is never to make people, who are unequal to begin with, to be equal.  It is to impose an artificial division of people into winners and losers ... that is independent of whatever they were naturally doing (and that is very diverse, because people aren't all alike, they are all different).  Doesn't matter if a majority decide the shitty system or a minority decides the shitty system.  They are all self-righteous assholes and hypocrites ... deciding that my immorality is superior to your immorality ... and getting state backing for their psychosis.  This is why Hillary can do stuff that would get you and me arrested.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Trying to force pastors to marry gay couples when it goes against their believes is stupid and wrong. Your actual rights to form the marriage contract do not need a pastor and are already protected by the goverment (or it should be like that if it is not) if you want a symbolic ceremony maybe pick one that actually aligns with your believes rather than forcing others to comply to your believes against their own. There's many religious people who accept gays now, they can marry you if you really want a ceremony based on cherry picked dogma as to no longer be homophobic like it was for 1000s of years.

Dude, there are churches in rural Georgia who refuse to marry interracial couples. No one is going after the pastors.