SCOTUS coverage
Follow the AJC coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage and how it affects Georgia.
As a Supreme Court decision on the constitutional right to gay marriage looms, Georgia has a lot to gain or lose, depending on your stance.
The question elicits strong emotions in Georgia, where polling shows people are almost evenly split on the issue.
Georgia Supreme Court overturned the state's sodomy law in 1998, but Georgia voters passed an amendment banning gay marriage in 2004.
Georgia is one of the last three states with a ban on same-sex marriage in place and no ruling to overturn it.
Much of the opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage stems from biblical roots. However, some metro Atlanta corporations, consultants, municipalities and judges anticipate a ruling in favor of gay marriage and are already adapting.
According to an article by the AJC, conservative lawmakers are considering several responses to a Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage:
- legislation to enable some government officials to opt out of gay wedding ceremonies if it violates their faith
- to safeguard faith-based adoption agencies that reject gay couples
- to enact a "covenant marriage" statute that is harder to dissolve and appeals to the deeply religious
Gov. Nathan Deal stated in April that Georgia will follow the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage.
"If we respect our form of government, then we have to respect it even if that form of government renders an opinion contrary to our own personal beliefs," he said in an interview with WABE (90.1FM).
The decision is coming, it's just a question of when and what happens if gay marriage wins.
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