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By Tammy Joyner and Leon Stafford

Some metro Atlanta business leaders hope their political counterparts at the Capitol can quash a “religious freedom” bill that is prompting talk of driving business from the state.

The head of California-based tech giant Salesforce, Marc Benioff, hinted last week that he may scale back the company’s presence in Georgia if the state passes House Bill 757, which would allow faith-based groups to cite their sincerely held religious beliefs to decline service to couples in relationships with which they disagree.

Academic group Southern Sociological Society, which comes to Atlanta every three years, said Friday it will take its convention and its 1,200 members elsewhere if the legislation becomes law.

How widespread such reactions would be is unclear, but the accompanying publicity would ding the state’s image, often mentioned by Gov. Nathan Deal, for having a top business climate. Some worry it would also stall or reverse the growth in film productions that has pushed Georgia to third place behind New York and Los Angeles. The economic impact to the state’s economy, film leaders say, is about $6.1 billion.

Some, though, say talk of business damage is exaggerated.

“At this point, I’ve heard zero pushback,” said Len Gough, founder and chief executive officer of ProMaker Development Group, which develops infrastructure and business models for film and television in Georgia.

“Production companies come here because it’s a good business decision,” he said. “We’ve created such a good environment, they’ll continue to come.

“Yes, some people will be offended, but that doesn’t keep them from making good business decisions.”

Debate over the measure also comes as metro Atlanta leaders plan a big push next month to promote the area as a tech haven at Austin, Texas’s “South by Southwest Festival.” They fear news of HB 757 could sabotage the effort with millennials who lean liberal on same-sex marriage.

“Our position has always been that our doors are open to everyone,” said Jim Sprouse, executive director of the 300-member Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association.

“Anything that gives the perception that business can discriminate against an individual for any reason is the problem we have with the bill.”

Tim Calkins, a branding expert at the Northwestern University, said some damage may already be done. He said Georgia has brought a lot of attention to itself over the issue and, however it is resolved, some will consider Georgia an intolerant state.

“Just the process can shape a brand,” he said.

Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, who has a offered a separate religious liberty bill, was critical of Salesforce’s Benioff, who was also outspoken during a similar legislative controversy in Indiana.

“It’s important to note that Salesforce does business in Singapore and India,” he said from the well of the Senate on Friday. “The laws of Singapore and India are that they make homosexuality a crime punishable by imprisonment. It appears he has absolutely no problem doing business in and making money from countries where homosexuality is a crime. So let’s spare us all the political antics around this issue.”

Proponents of the bill say it’s needed to protect citizens and businesses from losing government funding if their beliefs conflict with federal, state and local requirements. Opponents say the legislation would open gay or unmarried couples to discrimination.

As the controversy swelled last week, Gov. Deal said he and House Speaker David Ralston were working with legislators as the bill moved back to the House.

But fallout continued. Representatives of the popular annual Dragon Con festival, which brought more than 70,000 people to the metro area in 2015, said in a Facebook post they are monitoring the bill’s progress closely and that “legislation that hurts one of us, hurts all of us.”

“Unlike some conventions that have their headquarters outside the cities where they operate, Atlanta is the only home Dragon Con has ever had,” the group said. “We have great faith that our state’s leaders and legislators will, eventually, do the right thing for all Georgians.”

Atlanta native and UGA graduate Jon Birdsong, a co-founder and CEO of Atlanta software firm WideAngle, said he opposes the bill, but didn’t think leaving town was the answer.

“The easy thing to do is move. The harder thing is stand up against the perception of discrimination in our state,” he said.

He added he is concerned that attracting talent will be harder if workers think the state is not accepting or open.

Corporate leaders — including representatives of Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and UPS — have banded together to oppose the legislation under the Georgia Prospers banner.

Atlanta Hawks co-owner Grant Hill, who joined Georgia Prospers late last week, said he learned sportsmanship, fairness and inclusion as an athlete.

“It is critical now more than ever, that our state supports diversity and inclusion in the workplace,” Hill said.

— Staff writer Matt Kempner contributed to this article.

Marc Benioff led the charge to strike down Indiana’s anti-gay law last year. Now he’s taking on a similar bill in Georgia.

By Alexander C. Kaufman

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is strapping on his boxing gloves again.

Nearly a year after the cloud-computing giant led the charge to topple a law in Indiana that legalized discrimination against LGBT people in the name of religious freedom, Benioff says he is gearing up for a fresh fight against a similar bill in Georgia.

“Nobody wants a discrimination law in America today,” Benioff told The Huffington Post in a phone interview on Friday. “But there are still bigots out there fighting for people to be discriminated against.”

The bill, passed by the Georgia Senate in a 38-14 vote last Friday, allows religiously affiliated groups to refuse to “rent, lease, or otherwise grant permission for property to be used by another person for an event which is objectionable to such religious organization.” Dubbed the First Amendment Defense Act, the legislation actually takes Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act a step further, barring government authorities from bringing civil cases against organizations accused of discrimination.

“The law that was adopted in Indiana was a balancing act, where at least the government had the chance to go to court and make an argument that they should be able to penalize someone for discrimination,” Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, told HuffPost. “With the FADA, there’s an absolute right to discriminate, and that right is based on your view that marriage is between one man and one woman.”

The law in Indiana was amended last year to include protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people after Benioff launched a scorched-earth media campaign, rallying some of the country’s most powerful executives behind him. Salesforce — the largest tech employer in Indiana — vowed to pay to move any employees at risk of discrimination out of the state. Benioff also threatened to scale back the company’s operations in Indiana unless the law was altered to protect LGBT people.

Salesforce may only have about 1,000 workers in Georgia, but in May it is scheduled to host its annual Connections conference in Atlanta. The event draws about 15,000 Salesforce clients each year for three days. On Friday, Benioff posted a poll on Twitter, asking if he should change the event’s location if the FADA bill becomes law. By early evening, 75 percent of the roughly 2,500 voters supported the move.

“We will bring economic consequences,” Benioff told HuffPost. “We will deliver a rolling thunder of economic sanctions against the state, in this case Georgia, which is waging a war against LGBT people.”

Benioff said he already contacted the chief executives of Home Depot, Coca-Cola, email marketing service MailChimp and shipping giant UPS about the issue. Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said in an email that “we’ve been clear for some time now that we won’t support anything that discriminates.” The other three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But Benioff plans to bring other corporations into the battle, too.

“Look, this is about providing an environment for our employees and our customers that’s nondiscriminatory, that’s all,” Benioff said. “Come out and say you want equality for all, and we’ll get off your case.”

One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Georgia state Sen. Joshua McKoon (R), doesn’t plan to back down. He sent out a flurry of tweets on Friday afternoon criticizing Benioff for threatening to pull out of his state while continuing to do business in India and Singapore, where LGBT people face draconian laws that even outlaw sex between consenting adults.

“To threaten this economic extortion to influence the public policy process is not only incredibly wrong, but hypocritical,” McKoon told HuffPost by phone on Friday. “It’s unbelievably hypocritical for someone who I’m not convinced has even read the legislation that’s under consideration here to make the suggestion that businesses should leave the state because he has some interpretation that this is in some way anti-gay.”

McKoon said the law would protect religiously affiliated adoption agencies, for instance, from losing state or federal funding for refusing to place a child with a same-sex couple under the auspice of their religious doctrine around marriage.

The bill explicitly says it is designed to protect “belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a union.” But that language could allow for discrimination against unmarried couples and single parents, too, according to Warbelow.

“This means that a government-funded homeless shelter or an emergency center could turn away an unmarried couple and their kids, or a same-sex couple and their kids. It means that a therapist couldn’t lose their license from the government if they’re engaging in conversion therapy,” she said, referring to the controversial practice facing bans across the U.S. “It also means that an adoption agency could place a child in a group home rather than put them with a loving, committed same-sex couple or a single mom for that matter, and that the government couldn’t do anything about it.”

Benioff isn’t alone. Last week, Georgia-based telecom company 373K said it planned to relocate if the bill passed.

“I’m gay, our CFO is gay, we have people from every walk of life working here,” co-founder Kevin Williams told The New Civil Rights Movement, a news site devoted to LGBT rights. “I’ve got Muslims, Buddhists, atheists here. We’ve got great Christians working for us. They’ve never thought of not serving anyone — that’s not the message of Christ.”

CLICK HERE to read the original article on AJC.

By Aaron Gould Sheinin

An academic group vowed Friday to move its conference out of Atlanta and take its $650,000 investment elsewhere if Georgia passes a “religious liberty” bill that allows for discrimination.

Barbara Risman, president of the Southern Sociological Society, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the organization has held its conference in Atlanta every three years for more than 50 years.

But, if House Bill 757 becomes law, their 1,200 members will go somewhere else.

“This bill authorizes discrimination against sexual minorities and as such we find the bill morally objectionable and socially destructive,” Risman said. “Discrimination is in direct conflict with the principles of our organization and will prevent us from doing business in the State of Georgia.”

The Senate last week passed HB 757, against the wishes of the powerful Metro Atlanta Chamber, which went on record opposing the vote, as did the Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association, Hilton Worldwide, Marriott and InterContinental Hotels Group, all of whom said the bill would have a chilling effect on Georgia’s reputation for both business and tourism.

HB 757 would enable faith-based organizations and individuals to opt out of serving couples — gay, straight or unmarried — or following anti-discrimination requirements if they cite a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction regarding marriage.

The Society’s decision comes as other organizations and businesses are threatening to abandon Georgia if HB 757 passes. The CEO of Salesforce, a major tech company, told analysts he might move his Georgia operations should the bill become law.

But Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, a major supporter of religious liberty bills, scoffed at Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s comments.

“It’s important to note that Salesforce does business in Singapore and India,” McKoon said Friday on the floor of the Senate. “The laws of Singapore and India are that they make homosexuality a crime punishable by imprisonment. It appears he has absolutely no problem doing business in and making money from countries where homosexuality is a crime.”

It’s too late for the Southern Sociological Society to cancel this year’s meeting in April, which features four days of meetings at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, Risman said. But, she said, if HB 757 passes, the 2020 conference will be somewhere else.

“We will come in April, although I cannot promise all our members will come,” she said. “Some feel so strongly about it they themselves will boycott. It is too close for me to change our organizational decision.”

It would be a shame, she said, if her organization, made up of sociologists, social policy analysts and university professors, had to move.

“Our members love to come to Atlanta,” she said. “We get a big turnout. It’s been a great place for us to get together.”

CLICK HERE to read the original article on Atlanta Business Chronicle.

By Dave Williams

A co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks has joined the advisory board of a business coalition formed to oppose religious freedom legislation before the General Assembly.

Former pro basketball star Grant Hill, also a vice-chairman of the Hawks’ board, is lending his support to Georgia Prospers, which has signed up more than 350 businesses across the state.

“It is so important to keep alive the values of good sportsmanship, fairness and inclusion that were ingrained in me as an athlete,” said Hill, a seven-time NBA all-star. “That’s why I believe in the good work of Georgia Prospers. It is critical, now more than ever, that our state supports diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”

Georgia business leaders are worried that passage of a religious freedom bill in Georgia would spark a tourism and convention boycott of the state and lead to reduced corporate investment in other ways.

The Georgia Senate approved religious freedom legislation a week ago. The bill is now before the state House of Representatives.