Public Affairs Communications Op-Ed Assignment
Adoption Bill Will Hurt Not Help the Atlanta Community
By: Chris Clark
On Friday February 23rd, the Georgia Senate advanced SB-375, also known as the “Keep Faith in Adoption and Foster Care Act”, by a vote of 35 to 19. The core of the bill would give legal protection to faith-based adoption agencies that decline to place a child with people whose lifestyle they do not agree with, including single parents, unwed couples and LGBT couples. This bill has the potential to substantially affect the roughly 14,000 children in the foster care system here in Georgia. In response to the actions of the Georgia Senate, Executive Director of Georgia Equality Jeff Graham has announced a rally tomorrow at Central Presbyterian Church, which is right across from the Capitol Building. Not only has the Senate passage of this bill upset the LGBT community in Atlanta, but it has shaken the business community as well.
For the past several months public officials and economic development experts have worked hard on Atlanta’s bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, more commonly referred to as HQ2. With Atlanta in the top 20 finalists list, the city’s bid has the potential to bring the 50,000 high-paying jobs Amazon has to offer to the Atlanta area and boost the economy significantly. However, this recent political move against a major community in the Atlanta area counteracts all the hard work that state and local officials put in on the HQ2 bid to present Atlanta as a progressive, innovative community.
Opposition to the bill has come from many major business organizations, including the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. The Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce has stated that “Legislation that sanctions discrimination takes us further away from our goal of attracting investment that would improve the lives of Georgia families.” However, not only has the business community stepped forward in opposition to this bill, but even film and television producers have announced that they would boycott filming in Georgia if the bill were to pass. In the past few years, the movie industry has brought a lot of business to Georgia and that loss would be significant to the state’s economy.
I personally believe that this bill does not bode well for communities across the state and certainly not for the state’s economy. We have come too far to allow discriminatory politics to get in the way of progress and innovation. We should all come together in opposition of this bill for the future of Atlanta, and the future of Georgia as a whole.
Chris Clark is the President and CEO of The Georgia Chamber of Commerce, which works to keep, grow and create jobs to make Georgia a better state for business.
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