Georgia IMPORTANT please read

[Mistybtm]

Hello A CD friends sent this to me do not know how true it is.

here's some info that I found recently\

Georgia has no statewide anti-discrimination or hate crimes laws that protect transgender people.

The Court ruled that it was permissible for Georgia and other states to classify lesbian and gay Americans as criminals.

[Jodie_Lynn]

Really? any source material for these claims, other than a "CD friend"?

[Tamara Croft]

http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/courtingjustice/index.html?page=justice_oneVote

This quote The Court ruled that it was permissible for Georgia and other states to classify lesbian and gay Americans as criminals. taken from the above url, is only 'part' of of what was written!!! And seems it was 10 years ago....

[Brianna Lovely]

According to the Human Rights Campaign website:

Georgia Non-Discrimination Law

Gender identity protected? No

No statewide law explicitly addresses discrimination based on gender identity.

Sexual orientation protected? No

No statewide law explicitly addresses sexual orientation discrimination.



Georgia Hate Crimes Law

Gender identity protected? No

No provision of Georgia law explicitly addresses violence based on gender identity. There was a state law that specified, “it is the right of every person to be secure and protected from fear, intimidation, and physical harm caused by the activities of violent groups and individuals." However, this law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2004. Botts v. State, 278 Ga. 538 (Ga. 2004).

Sexual orientation protected? No

No provision of Georgia state law explicitly addresses violence based on sexual orientation. There was a state law that specified, “it is the right of every person to be secure and protected from fear, intimidation, and physical harm caused by the activities of violent groups and individuals." However, this law was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2004. Botts v. State, 278 Ga. 538 (Ga. 2004).

[Jodie_Lynn]

I guess thats what happens when a religious majority gets to write the laws.........
:(

[Samantha B L]

Hello Mystybtm,Many locales accross the country have actual laws on the books against different types of transgender,gay and Lesbian activity. However,most of these laws date back 100 years and are seldom actually enforced.I grew up in the St. Louis area.Strangely,St.Louis did have on the books for many years,a peculiar law about something to do with"clothing of the opposite sex' or "female attire".This law is hardly ever enforced but every once in awhile you hear about somebody getting arrested for this.Samantha

[Robin Leigh]

No enforceable law in the world can prosecute you for merely being gay or TG. The law has to be about some sort of gay or TG act, and so somebody has to catch you doing something... unless you decide to confess... Remember the high profile case in Malaysia a few years ago of Anwar Ibrahim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim)?

There are still many places in the world where engaging in gay sex or crossdressing are illegal. For that matter, there are still some places where certain consensual sex acts are illegal, even between husband & wife.

Here in Australia, Tasmania still had strong anti-gay & anti-CD laws until quite recently. Now their laws in this regard are the most progressive in the country. Under the old law, it was illegal to CD after dark. The legend is that the law was introduced to protect men from being rolled by a thief masquerading as a prostitute. Apparently it used to happen quite a bit down at the docks in the early days of the colonies.

Robin

[EricaCD]

Correct as far as Georgia's laws on hate crimes and discrimination. The hate crimes law was struck down on grounds of vagueness--probably correctly so, as it was not at all clear what categories of bias would result in stiffer penalties. Georgia law, like the laws of a number of states, does not list transgenderism or gender identity as a protected category for discrimination purposes.

As far as the statement that "it was permissible for Georgia and other states to classify lesbian and gay Americans as criminals": the article Tamara linked noted that the US Supreme Court overturned Bowers v. Hardwick three years ago. The Bowers decision upheld Georgia's law criminalizing consensual sodomy. This law did not distinguish between heterosexual and homosexual behavior, though it was plainly enforced more regularly against homosexuals.

I would not say that Georgia is on the legal forefront of affording protection to the LGBT community, but it is not nearly as bad as you have suggested. And I believe our friends here that hail from Atlanta will confirm that city can be quite LGBT friendly.

Erica

[DeeInGeorgia]

Georgia became a little less friendly when Governor Sonny Perdue, when the Gay Marriage prohibition thing went through, said approximately ...you can live and work here (my statement - we want your money), you just can't be married here (or a legally binding contract - my statement again). Is condesending the right word to use?

I found his statement exceeding repulsive. He definitely does not have my support.

Dee

[Julie York]

You lookin' at me bo?

[JenniferMint]

My thoughts about GLBT and laws:

(1) Laws that make it illegal to be or act GLBT are bad, of course.

(2) I don't mind whether there is a law against hate crimes. If someone beats you up for crossdressing and there is no law against hate crimes... well, he still gets charged for assault!

(3) I don't mind whether there is a law against discrimination. It's annoying if a business refuses me service for crossdressing, but I'd also feel bad if they were uncomfortable serving me but were forced to due to a law. I think it's their loss if they don't want to do business with me for a stupid reason---GOOD businesses will serve everyone and bad businesses will lose money when the free market acts.

One bad thing about anti-discrimination laws is that taxpayer money then has to be spent enforcing them, and investigating allegations (some of which will turn out to be baseless). Spending money is always bad in itself.