Mapping Our Progress

For over 30 years, our organization has fought for LGBTQ+ rights across the state. But the work continues. See the legislative wins, bills in progress and local campaigns that have contributed to progress across Georgia.

Local Progress

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Map Key

Local Nondiscrimination Ordinance
County Nondiscrimination Ordinance
Staff or Board Member

Statewide Legislative Wins

HIV Decriminalization

After years of work by the Georgia HIV Justice Coalition, Georgia Equality, and advocates living with HIV, Georgia’s HIV disclosure law was modernized in 2022 with the signing of SB 164.

Georgia’s revised HIV criminalization law accounts for both scientific accuracy of HIV transmission, and whether a person held the intention to transmit, neither of which were represented in the old law. What this means is the prosecution must prove the person with HIV had the intention of transmitting the virus; formerly, the prosecution had to prove whether or not the person simply had HIV and had knowledge of their status.

The new law protects victims of sexual assault; no longer can a person who commits sexual assault use the victim’s HIV+ status as a means of criminalizing the victim. The new law also omits hypodermic needles from the definition of “drug-related objects,” effectively decriminalizing syringes as an object – a major win in harm reduction in the state of Georgia.

Hate Crimes Protections

In June of 2020– following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick– Governor Brian Kemp signed into law House Bill 426 – the “Georgia Enhanced Penalties for Hate Crimes Act.”

Georgia Equality is proud to have worked in coalition with the Anti-Defamation League on hate crime legislation, which became the first law to ever specifically protect LGBTQ Georgians. “It is truly a historic moment for Georgia. A bill that was first passed at the state level in California in 1984 and has been a priority of Georgia’s LGBTQ community since the early 1990’s, has finally passed” said Georgia Equality’s executive director Jeff Graham.

HB 426 provides stronger penalties for individuals who target victims because of their actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability, or physical disability. It also requires local law enforcement agencies to collect data on hate crime investigations and provide “Bias Crime Reports” to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is essential for effective enforcement of the law.