At the stroke of midnight, while Georgians were sleeping, the Republican state Senate introduced a dangerous and bigoted piece of legislation targeting LGBTQ young people in private schools.
Georgia SB 613 mimics the discriminatory Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but instead targets K-8 private school students who don’t have the same protections as public school students.
The Florida Senate passed the hateful bill on Tuesday, March 8, with a vote of 22-17, almost but not entirely along party lines. Daily Kos staffer Marissa Higgins writes, “The bill pretends to be about ‘parental rights’ but is actually about stamping out LGBTQ+ identities, people, and histories from public school classrooms. There is no benefit to the bill. It will only push students (as well as teachers and other school staff) into the closet. It will only lead to increased shame, anxiety, and internalized queerphobia.”
“The [Georgia] bill is a full-frontal assault on the rights of kids in Georgia just before the GOP primary,” Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant law professor at Georgia State University, told Daily Kos.
Kreis says that this bill in many ways is “inconsistent” with the Georgia legislature, which rarely attacks private actors, such as private institutions or curricula.
Georgia Democratic Rep. Mathew Wilson, one of the six openly LGBTQ House representatives in the state, told Daily Kos the new bill is the latest pile-on of cruelty against LGBTQ Georgians. "The GOP looked at its polls and clambered for the most anti-LGBTQ bill they could get away with." He added that although he doesn't think SB 613 speaks to the true nature of the state, it's still "hateful and harmful," and "we have to stop it."
Both Wilson and Kreis are doubtful the bill will pass in its present state. It could be stripped and/or replaced, but it's not dead until the gavel falls.
According to The Georgia Voice, a study done by the Williams Institute in 2019 found that the South had the largest LGBTQ population of all the regions in America, with Georgia having the second-highest LGBTQ percentage in the South. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that 4.2% of metro Atlanta’s population identifies as LGBTQ, according to a Gallup poll.
Among Georgia’s LGBTQ population, 27% are raising children compared to the 29% nationwide. Twenty-six percent have income over $24,000, while only 16% of non-LGBTQ Georgians do.
Kreis says it’s high time Republicans begin to take a long, hard look at themselves.
“We have a lot of people in legislation and Republicans in the state railing against authoritarian and Russia but are using lines from Putin's playbook,” Kreis says.
He added:
“Republicans are using the same ugly phrases about LGBTQ such as ‘groomers,’ and ‘petophiles’ and these are the exact same lines Putin uses in his anti-LGBTQ legislation. It’s not tenable to take this abroad but then to xerox their propaganda here at home. This moment is a reflection point to what it means to support liberal and democratic ideas here at home.”
Wilson says that preventing these anti-LGBTQ bills from becoming law isn’t the entire victory.
”Just introducing these bills has a chilling effect on our community and our on our kids it’s immeasurable. We need to stand up and say this is not Georgia. This is not humane and to call on our allies to stand up and publicly shun this behavior, otherwise, it will happen every election year.”