Your look at Georgia’s First Amendment Defense Act

State Sen. Greg Kirk will hold a press conference later Thursday introducing his legislation that aims to protect some employees who object to gay marriage. But a leaked version of the bill has already provoked the ire of gay rights groups and others.

Project Q dubbed it “worse than anyone expected.” Anthony Kreis, a constitutional law professor, said it was “RFRA” on steroids. Jeff Graham of Georgia Equality said it “risks imperiling our state’s economy” by exposing married same-sex couples and their children to harm. And Lambda Legal said it was “divisive and dangerous.”

The version of the legislation would block the government from taking any action against anyone who acts “in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman.”

Kirk has said he designed his legislation to be more "palatable" to the business community than the religious liberty proposals that have divided the Legislature the last two years. And the version below that was making the rounds could yet be changed by this afternoon.

(Updates: Kirk outlined at a press conference what his proposal would do - and not do.)

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