Georgia, Mississippi Follow Arizona by Blocking Bills Seen as Anti-Gay

Proposals hit roadblocks less than a day after similar legislation was vetoed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer

  • Share
  • Read Later

Correction appended: Feb. 27, 2014, 11:30 p.m. E.T.

Less than 24 hours after Arizona’s governor vetoed a bill that had been criticized as anti-gay, similar legislation in Georgia and Mississippi are hitting new roadblocks.

Georgia state senator Josh McKoon conceded on Thursday that support for his religious-freedom bill is evaporating, 11Alive Atlanta reports. He told the Huffington Post that a committee vote on his legislation, previously scheduled for next Monday, has been taken off the calendar. McKoon said his bill merely protects religious rights of Georgia residents, but critics argued it would allow business owners to refuse services to gays based on religious beliefs.

In Mississippi, the state House of Representatives Civil Subcommittee stripped key provisions on Wednesday that had been attacked by the ACLU as discriminatory. The organization said the legislation would allow for even broader discrimination than the SB 1062 bill that was vetoed in Arizona, according to the Mississippi Business Journal.

Lawmakers in several other states, including Missouri, Illinois, South Dakota, Oregon and Hawaii, have proposed legislation that would also permit refusal of services to homosexual residents.

An earlier version of the headline misstated Jan Brewer’s political office. She is the governor of Arizona, not a Senator.