FADA stands for “First Amendment Defense Act” which like so many other proposed bills has a name which intends to do the exact opposite of it’s true intention. Far from protecting the First Amendment, FADA proposes to stomp all over it and brings Georgia one step closer to something more akin to Sharia law or something you would expect to find in a fascist country.
The proposed law would allow both individuals and organizations to refuse to conduct business with or otherwise discriminate against anyone whose marriage they find counters their religious beliefs. It also protects individuals from existing nondiscrimination laws in Atlanta and elsewhere.
Casey Cagle the lieutenant Governor and leader of the Georgia Senate celebrated the passage of the Senate version on Facebook with this incendiary post which claimed it was meant to counter groups of radical atheists which was pure fabrication. Cagle has had ambitions to be governor for quite a while but stepped aside when Godfather Deal needed to get out of Congress post haste because of ethics charges and decided to run for Governor. It was also around the same time Cagle had his own sex scandal. Keep in mind that Cagle is a member of the Hall County mafia and has ambitions to replace Nathan Deal as Governor. He knows where his bread is buttered and chose to wait his turn like a good little hypocritical Christian mullah.
According to this article from Red State
“Cagle intended to run for Governor of Georgia this year, but due to “back surgery” he felt would make running for statewide office too burdensome, he decided to seek re-election as Lt. Governor — also a statewide office.Rumors have long circulated that Cagle has a philandering problem too. This is the point where we get into wink-wink-nod-nod territory as there have been long, assorted, and firm denials (puns kind of intended), but pretty much anyone you talk to treats the stories as fact.Basically, the main story goes (and this story is not new), after Cagle got elected Lt. Governor and before he actually took the office, a secretary whose name many of us know walked into his office looking for him and found him standing receiving . . . well . . . let’s call it a Lewinsky . . . from a lady not his wife who shortly thereafter allegedly parted ways with Cagle’s campaign wherein she had been employed.And that’s not the only rumor about the Lt. Governor and not the only woman allegedly connected to the Lt. Governor.”
At least you can understand the Saudi Arabians. They live a life where education and freedom is largely withheld from them. These types of laws seem normal to them and in ISIS controlled territories. In the U.S. we have a Constitution which is supposed to guarantee a free society and this very same educated and free society then chooses to try and target a minority?
Atlanta’s chamber of commerce and visitors bureau produced separate studies citing a potential loss of $1 to $2b if the bill passes without civil rights protections. A coalition of 400 companies and counting have joined together to oppose this hate bill which includes Hollywood studios which alone could cost the state many billions and tens of thousands of jobs.
Joe Whitley, former US Attorney and Department of Justice official, calls the proposed law “superfluous and unnecessary” in a legal analysis. “The First Amendment in and of itself protects all Americans’ rights to speech, to worship freely, and to be free from a state-established creed,” he said. “These rights do not need the General Assembly to legislate in order to give them force or effect.”
This bill would not be limited to discrimination against same sex married couples however and could easily protect business that choose to refuse to serve anyone perceived to have sexual relations outside of a heterosexual marriage, such as single parents, or unmarried couples, whether gay or straight. Remember that doctor in Michigan who refused to treat a newborn last year because the baby had two moms? That could also be legal with this new bill. Georgia’s First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), or HB 757, would allow doctors to refuse treatment to patients if the doctor didn’t agree with that patient’s (or their family members) sexual orientation. It would allow foster and adoption agencies to deny qualified parents from adopting children, thus justifying using tax dollars to keep children homeless.
As if that weren’t enough to make you cringe, GOP Sen. Greg Kirk acknowledged his bill would protect members of the KKK from their hate-filled actions, and he had no problem with that.
“Couldn’t that organization, if they chose to do so, identify themselves as ‘faith based’?” State Senator Emanuel Jones asked referring to the KKK, an organization with a history of calling itself faith-based.
“I’m not an attorney,” Kirk responded. “I guess they could, Senator. I’m not sure. I don’t know what would stop them.
“So there’s nothing in your legislation that would stop them, is that correct?” asked Jones.
“That’s right,” Kirk said.
“Does that present a problem for you, Senator?” Jones continued.
After a long pause, Kirk simply said, “No.”
State Senator Nan Orrock remembers the “battles that raged across the South” after US supreme court findings established a law that people of color are equal. “The southern states did the same sort of thing back then,” she says, referring to attempts by state governments to circumvent federal protections using Jim Crow laws. “It all boils down to sanctioned discrimination.”
One really has to wonder why the Christian mullahs (AKA Republican legislators) continue to try and spin their wheels with this unconstitutional posturing? Nearly every state oath of office, including those in the State of Georgia, include a promise to support the U.S. Constitution and the state constitution. Protecting and defending the Constitution is part of the job description of legislators. The Bill of Rights establishes those rights inherent in citizenship, and it prohibits government from infringing upon them. Welcome to the Fundamentalist Caliphate of Jawja!
I will close with two quotes from the new Republican Saint that currently seems to be held in such high regard by so many in the GOP. At least on this point Ayn Rand seems far more reasonable and to the left of Georgia Republican legislators which is pretty scary.
“The end does not justify the means. No one’s rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others.”
“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”
I heard about the protest in Macon denouncing this garbage.