ATLANTA — The Georgia House Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday voted 3-2 to table a bill that would have provided workplace protections to all state employees, including LGBT workers, not long after hearing testimony comparing gays to pedophiles and necrophiliacs.
The sponsor of the bill, Democratic State Representative Karla Drenner, said after the committee’s vote, “Tabling it is not as not as bad as beating it. But tabling it means they killed it.”
The GA Voice reported that Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality — which has been lobbying heavily in favor of the bill — said it is too soon to say the bill is dead.
“The bill is very much still alive,” said Graham, who was among several supporters of the bill who testified at the hearing. “We had as conservative a group as we could have had and they voted to table and not end it.”
In 2010, the state passed an anti-bullying bill after it was first tabled, Graham said. So, he said, Tuesday’s action does not mean the end of HB 630. But it won’t be easy to get it passed, he admitted. Georgia Equality is urging people to call their local legislators to lobby on behalf of the bill.
“It is going to be a huge challenge to get it through this year,” he said.
During the course of testimony in support and in opposition to the measure — HB 630 — one witness urged lawmakers to oppose the bill, saying that passage would increase the likelihood of increased pedophilia in Georgia’s schools.
Tanya Ditty, state director for the anti-gay Concerned Women for America, testified saying:
“What’s going to protect our children if a pedophiliac comes in and gets a teaching job, is a bus driver, is a custodian? And they could be people that just want to prey on children and they would be protected by this law,” testified Tanya Ditty, state director for the anti-gay group, Concerned Women for America.
Ditty stated that “sexual orientations” included pedophilia, transsexuality, zoophilia and necrophilia and that “we do not believe the government should have a special protected minority class.”
Watch, courtesy the GA Voice:
Graham said “he hoped people would better understand what Georgia faces at the General Assembly every day when working for LGBT equality” after listening to Ditty’s comments.
“I think it certainly shows there is reasonable argument why this bill should pass,” said Graham. “It is up to the members of the committee and the legislature to do what is right or cave into the ridiculous fears of our opponents. Our opponents can’t even make a reasonable argument against this. That’s why they have to distort the facts and go as extreme as they do,” he said.
Filed under: Georgia
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Assholes!
How the hell arê gays classified as pedophiles???? Thèy arê human beings. Just because Theyre attracted to the same sex doesnt mean anything. You cant help who you fall in love with. Not Every1 is the same.
when will this insanity end…?
I echo Ed.
I’m sorry! My response was infantile! But, it just gets so frustrating and you can only hold the hurt in so long!
I did not know I was into either one of those, always the last to find out this stuff..*sigh* I gotta keep up.
They should take a look at Twilight, that bitch was into beastiality and necrophilia…and she was straight.
This disgusts me. Absolutely sickening.
ugh. that i live there disgusts me.
Personally, I believe that no one should be bullied for their sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter whether someone likes children, just as long as they don’t act on it. As for necrophiliacs, that’s a grey area. If they consented before death, then it may not be an issue. Homosexuality doesn’t have any issues surrounding consent, so I’d say it’s pretty stupid of them to compare it to the other two.
Panda your one of the bright lights in Georgia :)
… what the actual FUCK? We are /not/ pedophiles, necrophiliacs, or anything of that sort. There is nothing wrong with being homosexual.
People if you look back when interracial marriage was the hot topic – the conservative republicans and religious bigots are using the EXACT same language today. This translates as the desperate arguments of a losing team…. It is amazing that so much hypocrisy and bigotry is still alive in a first world country..
http://www.facebook.com/tanya.ditty?sk=wall
Well, I’m sure the comparison came up empty. And so will their Christmas stockings.
Sadly we live in a country where people arê more comfortable seeing guys walking down the street holding guns instead of hands.
You said it right on Kirstie ! How barbaric can some of these states get?
I don’t blame you one bit for your response, Ed. I’m so, so tired of the relentless hate and intolerance. It disgusts me, and this sort of bs is exactly why this country needs federally legislated protections and civil rights for ALL. We can’t and shouldn’t have to wait 20 years for certain states to get it right. Why should we pay taxes and not be afforded the same rights as other citizens??! I want my money back.
What a complete idiot. There’re only 4 sexual orientations. Heterosexuals, Homosexuals, Bisexuals, and Asexuals. Nothing more, nothing less.
some of my favorite postings :)
I just wonder what level of eduction this idiots have??? God have mercy !!!
Oh I needed something to laugh at.
Hang in there, Dorchelle. : )
Wow beth. You seriously brought tears to my eyes. Through poetry.
True poetry. But it wrks both ways. Wow.
All I can say is WTF!!!
People can’t be fucking serious!
I always hear people say its against the bible to be gay. And whenever some1 tells me that, it never seems to fail that i piss them off by saying people do shit against the bible every Damn day and you never see a controversial scene being made âbout the other “against the bible” stuff. I just wish people will accept the fact that there arê gays out there and that thèy cant change that.
THIS is as dated as 1970. Hopefully the Attorneys` with ACLU are on top of it. But it`s certainly motivation to assemble in Georgia.
Yet another state that is uneducated and way behind the times.
What moron wrote the article????? Wow really????? This article is awful and evil. I do believe in free speech but this is just an abomination! Wow. I am dumbfounded…….
Welcome to the south.
Maybe we should have just freed the slaves, made certain they were allowed to leave, and then cut our losses with these pinhead crackers.
Ever notice how it’s always the ugliest fucking people against equality?
There’s just no excuse for this type of ignorance in this world of information. That thinking is so 20th century! Georga; I smell rotten peaches!
These damn people don’t realize that most pedofiles are STRAIT men!
WE now this is bullshit… there are more out there in the str8 and hateful wold1!!