Senate Republicans advanced a bill that would bolster legal protection for religious rights, despite critics warning it could lead to discrimination against gay people and other groups.
The measure, Senate Bill 36, limits the state’s ability to enforce or pass legislation that conflicts with religious beliefs. The bill passed along party lines in a 32-23 vote in the Senate on Tuesday.
Republican supporters say it’s common sense legislation that would ensure Georgians' religious liberty without the government intruding on that right.
“Every Georgian should be free to worship and exercise their faith without unfair federal, state and local government intrusion,” said state Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth.
Meanwhile, Democratic senators said the proposal could be used to legally discriminate against certain groups of people, such as same-sex couples adopting children, landlords denying housing to an unmarried couple or an employer firing an employee based on religious beliefs.
“We’re all for religious freedom when it’s appropriately used,” said Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta. “But if you want to make sure that it is appropriately used, then you have to have the proper safeguards in place.”
Esteves said Georgia is one of the few states that does not have a state-level civil rights law protecting against discrimination.
Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-South Fulton, said Georgians already have religious freedom. The only thing the “bill does is use their religion as a free pass to discriminate,” he said.
“When I go to church with my husband and my two kids, I get to worship and praise God with no limitations, and you can actually do the same,” he said.
Setzler’s proposal comes as the GOP lawmakers have pushed for a series of bills restricting trans girls and women from participating in women’s sports, preventing public funds from paying for gender-affirming care for people in state prisons and preventing minors from using puberty blockers to help in gender transition.
Supporters of the bill have said similar measures in other states haven’t been used to discriminate in the past but rather used to defend the rights of other religions.
Setzler cited an instance where a Muslim woman was defended by a Florida religious rights law when she was required to show her face in public for a driver’s license photo. He also said a Texas law protected a Native American boy in Texas who was required by a school dress code to cut his hair.
“All it does is protect people of faith from having to participate or to support something that goes against their doctrine and beliefs,” said Mike Griffin, a lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
Senate Republicans have routinely sought religious rights legislation since then-Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a 2016 proposal.
Gov. Brian Kemp said during his 2018 campaign that he would only sign a bill if the language mirrored religious rights legislation enacted by Congress in 1993. Setzler said his proposal closely resembles that federal statute.
Following Deal’s veto, previous religious rights proposals have continually stalled in the House chamber. But a Republican push on conservative cultural priorities, both at the state Capitol and in Washington, has given the bill perhaps its best opportunity in recent years to make it into state law.
If SB 36 passed this year, Setzler said Georgia would join 39 other states that already have religious rights laws or protections set by precedents in state courts.
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