Unofficial Business: ‘Anti-gay’ bill: Hunting for a hot button

The addendum would go something like this: “unless that customer is a dude who is getting married to another dude, or a woman getting married to another woman, or someone who had sex before marriage or anyone trying to marry someone of another race or religion, or anyone doing anything related to marriage that you don’t like because of sincere religious beliefs.”

In those cases, Georgia senators who recently amended House Bill 757 would like you to feel free to not serve such customers – for religious reasons tied to views about marriage — without fearing that the government might step in and do something about it.

Which is interesting, because I’m not seeing evidence that lots of Georgia businesses are anxious to avoid serving customers over issues of faith and marriage.

That might explain why I’m not seeing a rush of governments in Georgia trying to force businesses to change their ways. Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationally is less than a year old. So things could change.

But, hey, why not make a law that gets everyone riled up, just in case?

Because when state legislators start swinging a big ax at a problem that doesn’t yet exist, you never know what they’ll hit. For starters, there’s at least the risk of nicking an economic artery. Which means jobs.

HB 757 is a “religious liberty” bill, which generally are aimed at limiting government’s ability to punish people of faith for the steps they take to be true to their religion.

Who doesn’t like freedom of religion? I certainly do.

I’m wary of business owners being forced to do things against their faith without a compelling government reason. Of course, the devil is in the details, especially when versions of it sound like discrimination.

But that’s a conversation for another day. Because I’m having almost no luck finding a bunch of businesses that want to turn away gay customers.

Certainly there must be lots of examples in our home state for this to be a burning issue for state legislators, right? Especially since opponents claim passing the law would spark an economic calamity.

I called state legislators, including State Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, who pushed for the legislation. Nothing. (Actually, they didn't return my calls. Yay, representatives of the people!)

I called a constitutional scholar at the University of Georgia who is fighting HB 757.

“We just don’t know to what extent these things are happening or not happening,” said Anthony Kreis, a UGA PhD candidate.

I called a spokesman for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board (the new name for the Georgia Baptist Convention).

Mike Griffin told me the organization helped negotiate the wording of the current bill with Senate leadership.

He said he didn’t know of any case in Georgia where a business denied even minimal service to a gay couple over the marriage issue.

So why, I asked, do we need this bill to become state law now?

“This is in preparation for where the future is heading,” Griffin said.

LGBT activists around the nation are pushing for new laws that might force businesses to serve them, Griffin said. (The city of Atlanta approved a local anti-discrimination law and the Athens-Clarke County commission is considering one.)

You’d think the Huns were invading.

Griffin told me that Georgia businesses don't refuse to serve gays over the marriage issue because they fear sparking public backlash and being attacked on social media (which happened to an Indiana pizza parlor owner).

Of course, HB 757 isn’t going to put the kibosh on social media or public outcries.

Here’s what I found:

 There was a report three years ago that The Georgian Club had turned away a gay couple that wanted to have a commitment ceremony at the private Cobb County club. The club's position has since changed, as the federal law has, chief operating officer Anthony Mullins told me. Now, such ceremonies are allowed in the club, he said. "We don't discriminate against same-sex couples."

 The AJC reported on a Suwanee printer who declined to do a wedding invitation for two women. The location is run by a franchisee. When the franchiser heard the news, it offered to do the invitations for free.

So those apparently isolated hotspots seem to have burned out. But HB 757 is still on fire.

That worries some big Georgia businesses that say the legislation will encourage discrimination against their employees. Opponents of the bill warn it will chase away conventions, hurt business recruitment and generally poke a stick in our economy's eye.

I’m sure some of those concerns are overstated. But who wants to take that risk? Or force recruiters into damage-control mode? Or hurt business owners who rely on visitors’ goodwill?

Gov. Nathan Deal apparently would like a way out of this headache. He told the AJC on Monday that the legislation is “a work in progress.”

“I do not want us to do anything that will be perceived as allowing discrimination in the state of Georgia,” he said.

None of the dire economic predictions should be a shocker, because that’s exactly what was forecast in Indiana, where politicians quickly amended a similar law to dampen a national firestorm of denunciations.

Which raises a question here in Georgia: Don’t we have enough issues that we don’t have to go out of our way to create new ones?