By Aryan Batada
Growing up in the South, attacks on church and state separation felt like just another part of my daily life. I remember my public elementary school classroom reciting Bible verses together for my teacher. At the time, it seemed harmless – just something everyone did. But looking back, I realize it was a clear example of government-sponsored religion shaping what we were supposed to believe.
Unfortunately, those infringements have become increasingly louder and aggressive in recent years. Earlier this year, Georgia passed two bills that have since become law, both of which undermine the separation of church and state: SB 1 (the Riley Gaines Act) and SB 36 (the Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act).
Known as the Riley Gaines Act, this law prohibits transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams and mandates schools to segregate bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations by biological sex.
Supporters of SB 1 claim the law promotes fairness in women’s sports, yet there is not a single documented case of transgender athletes disrupting athletic fairness in Georgia schools. The real impact of the law isn’t fairness – it’s exclusion. It places a rigid and religiously influenced definition of sex onto students, granting the government unprecedented authority to regulate young people’s identities and bodies.
Georgia lawmakers also passed the state’s version of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This act provides broad exemptions to individuals and businesses who claim to have “sincerely held religious beliefs,” allowing them to sidestep state and local anti-discrimination practices.
While supporters frame it as a law that protects religious liberty, RFRA effectively creates a license to discriminate on the basis of religion. What makes Georgia’s RFRA particularly dangerous is that Georgia lacks explicit statewide protections for sexual orientation or gender identity. Without these protections, SB 36 grants religious exemptions free rein, empowering individuals to deny basic services and opportunities under the guise of faith.
Similar laws in other states have enabled businesses to refuse services to LGBTQ+ people, deny health care coverage for reproductive services, and even reject housing applications from same-sex couples – all justified by religious beliefs. This law unfairly weaponizes individual beliefs into tools for exclusion and discrimination.
Though SB 1 and SB 36 passed, several other dangerous bills narrowly stalled this session:
These bills reveal a broader trend in Georgia’s legislature, where religious doctrine is becoming embedded into law at the expense of civil rights and equality.
Church-state separation is the shield that keeps our public schools welcoming to all students, ensures public libraries can circulate diverse ideas, and protects all individuals, religious or not, from discrimination. Your faith should not determine your access – or lack thereof – to everyday goods and services. Georgia’s recent legislative attacks remind us that we can’t take this separation for granted.
If you’re troubled by these developments, make your voice heard. Georgia is not the only state with troubling developments in the past year. Connect with your local Americans United chapter or connect with the national organization to learn more about how to make a direct impact. Speak to your representatives and attend town halls. We need to come together to renounce religious bias in laws that should protect us all. Only by taking action can we ensure our government stays neutral and protects the freedom of conscience and equality for everyone.
Aryan Batada is a member of Americans United’s 2024-25 Youth Organizing Fellowship.
