Recently a bill in Georgia has been circulating guaranteeing religious freedom. Sounds good, right? Does this mean that everyone will finally be able to express his or her freedom of religion in America without discrimination? Is it a first step of acceptance towards people who aren't Christian? Ah, no. This bill in Georgia, similar to other bills passed in states such as North Carolina, allows citizens of the state to deny business if it's against their religion.
The problem is this allows people to deny individuals who identify as gay, lesbian or transgender property, a marriage license or to be part of an some organizations. We have seen a similar bill in North Carolina that has ruled to not protect the LGBT from discrimination. Also, the North Carolina bill has ruled that transgender individuals are not allowed to use the bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Looking at the photo of a tweet by trans man JP Sheffield below, anyone can see why this is ridiculous. Back to the Georgia bill, named HB 757. How does this affect those LGBT? Say a gay couple wants to buy something at a store in Atlanta. A storeowner can go up to the couple and “express his or her freedom” to kick them out because the storeowner’s religion does not agree with homosexuality. That religion is most likely some denomination of Christianity, as the state’s demographics show that almost 80 percent of the state is Christian. Christianity and homosexuality do not agree, which is why this can be considered a bill that favors a specific people over everyone else.
Here is the bill if anyone wants to read it.
But religious freedom is good! Everyone should have the right to practice whatever he or she wants! That’s true, but that practicing shouldn't affect others in a negative way. LGBT people should not have to deal with hate from others and hear religion as a copout. Yes, there are some faiths that are against anything LGBT, but why? What makes it normal to hurt others based on something that doesn’t affect you? If someone is eating cake and you’re on a diet, you don’t say, “Hey, you can’t have that because I can’t.” So why deny someone something because of a trait of theirs that doesn’t affect anything?
This is legal discrimination; there is no other thing to call it. Lawmakers wanted to make it allowable to treat someone as less than a person. Even though same-sex marriage was legalized back last June, LGBT are still facing discrimination. Marriage is not everything, it is a start to equality. As we can see, there is still a long way to go because there is still fight from those in power. Even presidential candidates want to reverse the verdict of Obergefell v. Hodges. We need to go further than marriage; we need to advance as a collective. We need to educate all and not let ignorance affect our society. To those LGBT, you are not alone in this fight; you are being backed up by all who care and some superpowers in our society. Disney and the NFL are some of the several corporations that have decided to boycott the state if the bill passes. We have seen discrimination happen throughout our history to today, and this is another example. Discrimination should not be allowed in any form, and protection of sexuality and gender identity should be included along with race, religion and gender. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided cannot stand.”
