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LGBT Rights

Sen. Ligon continues crusade for an LGBT adoption ban

A new “religious freedom” bill that would allow faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ couples based on their “mission” has cleared a key subcommittee and moved forward in the Georgia Senate. State Sen. William Ligon (R-St. Simons Island), the bill’s main sponsor, tried to get similar legislation passed last year too, tacking the “mission” language onto a bill that had already gone through a lengthy review process. The bill, HB 159, was eventually stripped of

2018 Legislative Session

Sen. Josh McKoon deletes his own Twitter poll in embarrassing defeat

In an embarrassing move, State Sen. Josh McKoon deleted his own Twitter poll on multilingual driver’s tests after it backfired on Monday. He asked, “Should Georgia offer the Driver’s License Examination in 11 different foreign languages?” Before he deleted the poll, about 70 percent of people had answered in the affirmative — evidently not the response McKoon was hoping for. The poll was an effort to bolster support for his recent bill proposing amending Georgia’s

General Assembly

We’ll never stop fighting for equality

When politicians won’t listen, you have to bring the message to them. And when you want to make sure they can’t miss your message, there is nothing quite like a mobile billboard circling the State Capitol all day. During the early days of the so-called “religious freedom” debates — before the issue became one of the most well known at the Capitol — Better Georgia was pushing back against the anti-LGBT, anti-woman measure. The “Religious

Elections

Celebrate progressive victories, but keep fighting

Stephe Koontz of Doraville is the only transgender elected official in Georgia right now. She won the District 3 seat on the council by just six votes last Tuesday. Her victory came along with a string of wins for more openly transgender officials across the country — and all of these victories are worth celebrating. Koontz, a longtime active community member, continues to focus on local work for Doraville as an elected official. She’s making

GOP candidates double down on hate

The people and businesses of Georgia have beaten back anti-gay religious “freedom” legislation year after year. And yet the GOP keeps bringing it back. Why are Georgia Republicans so determined to pass legislation based on hate? On Saturday, the four leading Republican gubernatorial candidates stood together behind Georgia’s controversial religious “freedom” measure. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Sec. of State Brian Kemp, former State Sen. Hunter Hill and State Sen. Michael Williams have all pledged to

Congressional District 6

Handel and Trump’s attacks on women’s health

Georgia is notoriously terrible when it comes to women’s health and well-being. One analysis from 2017 ranks Georgia as the fourth-worst state for women’s economic and social well-being and the 11th-worst state for women’s health and safety. Now, Donald Trump wants to make a dire situation worse for women in Georgia. The Trump administration drafted a broad rule that would allow employers to stop covering birth control in employer health plans on so-called religious or