Last night Savannah became the ninth city in Georgia to enact a local nondiscrimination ordinance that ensures no one can be denied a job, a home, or a service in a public place because they’re LGBTQ.
Thanks to the effort of local advocates and city leaders like Mayor Van Johnson and Alderman Kurtis Purtee, LGBTQ Georgians who live and work in Savannah will now have immediate protections against discrimination. Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2020
ATLANTA, GEORGIA –
Georgia Equality joins our partners at ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today in celebrating Governor Brian Kemp signing into law House Bill 426 – the “Georgia Enhanced Penalties for Hate Crimes Act.” The new law’s protections go into effect immediately. ADL leads the Hate Free Georgia Coalition, which played an important role in securing the passage of HB 426.
“Today, we are elated to participate in this historic moment for Georgia, which was decades in the making,” said Dr. Allison Padilla-Goodman, ADL Vice President, Southern Division. “Governor Kemp’s signing of HB 426 sends the resounding message that all Georgians’ identities are a valuable part of our State. It recognizes that Georgia will not tolerate crimes that terrorize and alienate entire communities. We are thrilled that Georgia is joining the 45 other states with hate crimes laws,” said Padilla-Goodman.
Today the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. In a vote of 6 to 3, the Court has decided that “an employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.” In the midst of the COVID-19 health crisis and vitally important nationwide demonstrations in support of Black lives and against systemic racism, this decision is heartening and encouraging.
The Supreme Court has ruled that companies don’t have a right to discriminate against LGBTQ people in the workplace. This historic decision says that LGBTQ people are, and should be, protected from discrimination under federal law.
Georgia Equality will host a townhall meeting tonight (6/15/20) at 6:00 PM on Facebook Live to discuss the impact of the ruling in Georgia. Visit facebook.com/gaequality
The criminal legal system has failed time and time again to uphold the most basic tenet of democracy, that of equality. The American criminal legal system is indeed broken, and has proven itself deeply dysfunctional, consistently dangerous, and quite literally deadly. Black people, many of whom are LGBTQ, bear the brunt of racial disparities in every facet of the institution, from arrests to sentencing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the killing of black people by police. As early as elementary school, black children are overly policed, resulting in the spectrum of criminalization referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline. We as LGBTQ organizations cannot back away from this outrageous injustice.