(Atlanta, March 28, 2016) - Today, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal vetoed House Bill 757, a discriminatory bill that would have invited private businesses, individuals and medical and social services agencies to discriminate against anyone in Georgia on religious grounds. Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Southern Regional Director Simone Bell:
We cannot replace a bad bill with another bad bill. And this bill is very bad. It invites discrimination and encourages lawsuits. It is targeted at the LGBT community, but will sweep in others.
(Atlanta March 16, 2016) - Today, a newly amended but still deeply discriminatory bill, HB 757, passed the Georgia Legislature and is headed to the governor. Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Southern Regional Director Simone Bell:
(Atlanta, March 2, 2016) — Today, Simone Bell, Lambda Legal Regional Director and former Georgia state representative, attended the Georgia Unites Against Discrimination rally against anti-LGBT bills that encourage discrimination. She delivered remarks on the steps of the capitol:
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (“LGBT”) and people living with HIV are on the line again this year before the United States Supreme Court.
House Bill 1107, a dangerously far-reaching religious refusal bill that would have allowed individuals, businesses, social service agencies and others to discriminate against same-sex couples, transgender people and single mothers on the basis of personally held religious beliefs was tabled in the South Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.
(Pierre, South Dakota, February 25, 2016) — House Bill 1107, a dangerously far-reaching religious refusal bill that would have allowed individuals, businesses, social service agencies and others to discriminate against same-sex couples, transgender people and single mothers on the basis of personally held religious beliefs was tabled in the South Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.
Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the Court to reject arguments made by religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations who argue that it burdens their religious beliefs simply to notify the federal government that they are opting out of providing their employees insurance coverage for contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
