Opinion: Our ‘license to discriminate’ bill
This article was part of a letter to Georgia Equality urging the Georgia General Assembly not to pass the proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in 2015. The bill was unequivocally an excuse to discriminate. As the Georgia Supreme Court held, permitting citizens to opt-out of laws because of a so-called burden on the exercise of religion in effect “would permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.” The impact of the then proposed RFRA was far-reaching and could not be precisely known.
This legislation was not about gay marriage, or contraception, or even “religious freedom;” it was more important than all of these, because it ultimately involved the rule of law. Regardless of whether one agreed with a particular policy, or if it offended one’s religious sensibilities, the proposed RFRA was bad for all Georgians of good faith, or for that matter of any faith whatsoever. It was not just bad public policy; it was ill conceived, unnecessary, mean-spirited, and deserving of a swift death in the General Assembly.