One of the leading gay rights groups in the country is calling on Hollywood studios and executives to boycott the state of Georgia if the state passes the religious freedom bill that passed through the state legislature this week. If the law passes, the state’s NFL sports betting odds of hosting the Super Bowl in 2018 will be very slim.
The bill need to be signed by the state’s governor before it can become a law, and the Governor’s office has received a lot of calls asking him not to sign the bill into law. If signed into law, the bill will give religious organizations the right to deny employment to LGBT people and the right to refuse the use of their facilities based on their religious beliefs.
People who oppose the bill have called it discriminatory because federal law makes it illegal to deny employment to people based on their race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Proponents of the bill have countered that it is prejudicial to make people or groups act against their religious beliefs.
Prominent business owners like Arthur Blank of the Atlanta Falcons, as well as the owners of the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves have spoken out against the law and urged the governor not to sign it.
On Saturday, Chad Griffin, the president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, asked Hollywood executives to threaten not to film movies or television shows in the state if the bill is signed by the governor.
At a dinner in Los Angeles, Griffin asked Hollywood executives not to commit to filming or producing any of their shows and movies in Georgia.
A 2014 research conducted by FilmL.A, showed that Georgia is the third largest state to host movie productions, behind Los Angeles and New York. The state reported an estimated $1.7 billion spent in the state on film and television production in 2015.
Griffin’s call to boycott the state of Georgia came a day after the NFL said the law could affect the state’s chances of hosting the Super Bowl.
If the bill is passed, it will protect religious leaders from having to perform same-sex marriages or having to attend them. The bill will also allow organizations that are faith-based from having to rent out their facilities for any event they feel contradicts their religious beliefs, while exempting them from hiring people whose beliefs are different from theirs.
In 2014, a similar bill was passed in Arizona, but Governor Brewer vetoed the bill after threats from the NFL to move the Super Bowl to another city and other corporations threatening to move their businesses elsewhere.
Last week, Georgia’s Governor Nathan Deal said he was surprised that lawmakers were able to quickly reach a compromise on the bill, which he had spoken against in the past. However, Governor Deal did not tell reporters if he was going to sign the bill or not.
Other corporations like Microsoft, Bank of America, IBM, Marriott, and many others have publicly condemned the bill and have urged Deal to veto it. If he decided to sign it into law, the state will have to figure out other ways to make up for the lost income.