How "Religious Freedom" Became Laws Flash Point in the Georgia Governor's Race

John Latter is a location manager: when a director needs to shoot scenes with a particular backdrop, he'll find some options, sign agreements with property owners, figure out safety measures and what to do if it rains. Latenser has worked on "Black Panther," "Transformers," "Deep Impact," and other projects, going back decades. A few years ago, he moved from Washington, DC, to Georgia, which was one of its way to become "the Hollywood of the South." The industry has reportedly created nearly a hundred thousand jobs in the state and an estimated $ 2.7 billion in direct spending in Georgia during the last fiscal year. Georgia is home to a major international airport and a variety of filmable landscapes-mountains, beaches, a big city, countryside-but what really made it a top filming location are the tax credits. Since 2008, production companies working in Georgia have earned credits equaling thirty percent of their expenses simply by flashing the state's peach logo at the end of movies and TV shows.

But, in January, Latter told me recently, many of his colleagues began to get anxious. "There was a weird lull in production here at the beginning of the year," he said. "No one could quite put their finger on it. We did not know what was going on. It seemed logical that people were waiting to see what happened politically. "Tom Pierce "One of the rumors was that they were kind of waiting to see how they would settle with the governor's race," he said.

It was just a rumor, but there was a lot of fun, but the party's eventual nominee, Brian Kemp, had promised to sign a Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. were elected. There are versions of RFRA legislation in some twenty states; These laws are often referred to as services to couples who wish to deny services to couples on the basis of religious beliefs. Georgia passed RFRA in Disney, Netflix, CBS, Steven Spielberg, M-G-M, and others in the film industry, and many others to take their projects elsewhere. Ultimately, the state's Republican governor, Nathan Deal, vetoed the legislation, defying the more conservative members of his party. "I do not think we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community," he said at the time. (Deal, having served the state's limit of two consecutive terms, will step down in January.)

As the race between Kemp and his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, heads into their final stretch, much of the press coverage has been focused on the most supporters, and also whether some Georgians, particularly African-Americans , will be denied their right to vote. The conservative Kemp and the progressive Abrams make such different pitches to voters that it can be hard to imagine anyone having trouble choosing between them. But if swing voters do exist, they can include local business leaders, many of whom tend to vote. (More than 50 cents) recently signed an ad in the Atlanta Business Chronicle saying that they are opposing RFRA legislation.) In August, Kemp and Abrams attended a luncheon in Macon hosted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. At the event, Abrams denounced RFRA legislation, reportedly drawing loud applause. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has endorsed candidates in nine races, all of them Republicans. At the luncheon, the President of the Chamber announced that it would not make appointments in such a way that the incumbent-such as the governor's race.

On Monday, Shirley Franklin, the former mayor of Atlanta, held a street-corner with other Democrats and local businesspeople in front of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce's Atlanta office, and spoke about the threat that they believe a Kemp administration would pose to Georgia's economy. Among the participants were a few film-industry veterans, including Garreth Stover, a production designer on "Dynasty" who moved to Georgia from California ten years ago, with his wife and two children, despite the "stereotypes about the South," as he put it to me. "He wins, I leave," Stover said of Kemp at the press conference, as Matt Earl Beesley, executive producer of "Dynasty," waited for his chance to denounce Kemp, and his agenda, at the podium, in language.

Josh McKoon, a Republican state senator who has been one of the primary supporters of RFRA legislation in Georgia, is skeptical about such threats. "Hollywood and the entertainment industry seemingly do not have a problem with their wares to countries with real human-rights problems," he told me, mentioning Hollywood actors taking jobs in China and participating in promotional events and "star tours" in Singapore. "He added," It's a bluff-and, anyway, I do not think we're going to be able to go to the country. " or what civil rights can be enjoyed by Georgians

Kemp-while campaign This article is intended to help you find the right source of information. Abrams, who was the minority leader in the state legislature from 2007 to 2017, told me that the reason Georgia did not pass RFRA the federal law existed. "There is no necessity for adopting a state version except for a pretext for allowing discrimination against the L.G.B.T.Q. community, "she said. When I asked about Abrams' comments, he told me, "Look, whether we pass RFRA tomorrow or next year, it has no impact on the fact that there is not a law in place affording L.G.B.T.Q. In the United States, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in Atlanta, the Title of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, declining to reconsider a prior ruling. (In February, The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, New York, Reaching the opposite conclusion, in a ruling on a different case.)

McKoon had hoped to replace Kemp as Georgia's secretary of state but lost the Republican primary, in May, and so, come January, he will no longer hold elective office in Georgia. Meanwhile, Georgia's Speaker of the House, the Republican David Ralston, does not seem to be a fan of RFRA this year, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution"In North Carolina, the so-called bathroom law," House Bill 2, "House of Commons" , which was passed in 2016 and probably revised, caused filmmakers and production companies to relocate projects out of the state. (Norm Bielowicz, director of the State Film Office, told me, "Nothing is being made there.") Indiana's RFRA Law, which was revised after Republicans in the state went on the language with state business leaders, was signed in 2015, by Mike Pence, the governor at the time. The Trump-Pence Administration has, not surprisingly, been RFRA-friendly: in May, Trump signed an executive order creating a "faith initiative" that could not be "facilitated discrimination by religion."

In disavowing RFRA laws, Ralston, the Georgia House speaker, said, "I'm kind of a forward-looking guy, and I want to look forward." The question, though, may not be one of the future as looking within Georgia or beyond it. Kemp and his allies have taken to say that a vote for Abrams is a vote to "turn Georgia into the next California." It's intended as a reference to her criminal-justice policies, but it could make more sense in the context of RFRA and the state's relationship with the film industry. "I have told you that they will leave," she told me. It's not only the film industry, she added: tech entrepreneurs interested in Georgia have said the same. Amazon is currently considering Atlanta for its second American headquarters, and the Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce has hosted several meetings of Atlanta's leading pitching company. Some fear that RFRA legislation would kill the chances of Amazon coming to Georgia.

Latter, the location manager who moved to Georgia from D.C., told me, "When I'm driving directors and producers around who are California-based, and they see the Stacey Abrams signs in certain neighborhoods, they get pretty excited. But then they'll see Trump signs, and they're not sure what to think. They're like, 'People here really support him?' And, yeah, in Georgia, a lot of people do. "