I will only view pictures made in ant women’s rights states when the profits go to assist women’s rights.
Stephen Rinsler, MD
7
The article leaves out how political geography affects the argument. Georgia is strongly divided into liberal and conservative regions.
Hollywood's investments mainly benefit the Atlanta and Savannah metropolitan areas. Sophisticated Hollywood observers know that people in that area largely oppose the law and that there is little point in punishing them with a boycott. Meanwhile rural counties that voted for the ban don't benefit from Hollywood's presence in the state and don't care whether they alienate the movie companies or not.
Media reporters need to dump their silly habit of treating states as monolithic "red" or "blue" masses, a theory that distorts what is really going on..
10
Perhaps now the Georgia legislators who were indifferent or ignorant of the potential economic consequences of their actions can seek out the moguls of Christian-based film entertainment.
There must be at least one, right?
4
Going forward I’ll make it my business to find out which movies and shows are filming in Georgia and vote with my dollars. This law is reprehensible and needs to be rescinded.
13
Where are the sports teams and stars, the Rock and Pop stars and music industry, the people in the lecture circuit, Apple, and state governments? I am disappointed in them for dragging feet on boycotting the anti-women/girls and anti-religious freedom states the way they stayed away from Indiana when it adopted anti-LBGTQI law.
12
While one might differ over the tactical wisdom of boycotting Georgia, there's no question that others throughout the nation have every right to boycott Georgia. After all, Georgia is attempting to bring about authoritarian understandings of the constitutionally and statutorily protected right to vote and rights of women and LGBT people. If Georgia is successful, these new understandings will govern the entire nation. For instance, if Georgia is successful in eliminating or constraining the precedent of Roe v Wade, that will affect the entire nation. If others around the nation boycott Georgia over these issues, they're not kibitzing. They're protecting their own rights and the rights of future generations for the entire nation.
9
"Kibitzing" means "talking" or "chatting" but I see your point about boycotting
2
I live in Georgia and support an economic boycott. Something as divisive as abortion should be voted on, not decided by a bunch of old white men, of which I am one.
39
@Mr. Peabody
" Something as divisive as abortion should be voted on".
Blame Row vs Wade, which has blocked voting on abortion for 40 years.
Brian Kemp, a Republican, said his party stood firm behind the law, “even though that makes C-list celebrities squawk.”
Why be so contemptuous of a billion dollar industry in Georgia?
Why insult top movie figures?
Kemp is only in office due to 55,000 votes after he purged about one and a half million voters and engaged in all kinds of voter suppression and flawed elections.
A stolen election is not a good starting point to make claims like his, and the extreme abortion ban in Georgia was passed by 33 white male state senators with 1 woman.
In the past, top state officials stayed closer to the middle. This is likely to backfire on the extreme right wing people.
13
The "whataboutism" of Trumpers just reinforces the obvious fact that these people never grew up, and probably never will.
16
Why are they treading carefully? When Pence signed his anti-gay bill in Indiana, the outrage and boycotts were immediate. So where are these Hollywood studios now, when attempts are being made to hijack women's uteri?
We won't forget this slight.
18
The entertainment industry can not claim to have learned anything from the #MeToo movement, unless it respects a woman's private physical autonomy.
14
@The Buddy: "The Apprentice" gave everyone a ringside seat to what an awful Boss Trump is.
7
The cast should walk out until the movie company decides to get out of Georgia. What their doing in their legislation, which will be struck down by a court, is appalling. The gop wants to take all the money in the US and take the country back to the 1800's.
10
Boycott Georgia for pretending to be modern when it’s not.
38
@Indy1 Georgia has the nation's highest per capita of bloviators.
4
Hollywood. Perhaps the worst industry in the country for harassment and exploitation of women. Excuse me while I hold my nose at the stench of hypocrisy.
6
No problem. I'll boycott any films — along with their product placements and tie-ins — and pretty much anything made in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and any other state that bans or restricts abortions. Will that inconvenience me? Perhaps, but that's nothing compared to what the women in these states will have to endure.
29
Bravo to those businesses and performers who abandon these women-hating states.
I'm still waiting to hear CNN is moving to a state that respects women, science, and separation of church and state.
21
@Veda: Its NYC studio finally moved out of a location that looks out on a Trump-labeled hotel.
4
Than you for this and please do keep me apprised of which series are filming in these theocracies so I can avoid supporting them.
25
I spent 3 miserable years in Savannah, supposedly the best Georgia has to offer. Old Savannah is quaint, but that wears thin after constantly dealing with the racist, ignorant population.
32
No surprise here. Prior to the declaration of war against Germany in 1941, most Hollywood studios were reluctant to offend Nazi sensibilities since Germany was the largest foreign market for their films.
13
@george eliot: After the war, Hollywood people were the number one targets of McCarthyism.
5
"It is kind of hard to have a livelihood and a job and a career you’ve invested in since 1997 held hostage every time you turn around because someone from California doesn’t like a law in your state.”
This tells all why you need to think of boycotting the state, the person quoted is like many in conservative states, they think there are no consequences for letting idiots write laws that offend others, whether it is laws diminishing LGBT rights or abortion restrictions, they want to be able to live in a dreamworld where actions don't have consequences. It is like the person who says something really, really offensive then cries "free speech" when there is a backlash, what they want is to be able to say what they want, and not face consequences, and that isn't free speech.
Contributing profits to the ACLU or abortion rights groups sounds noble, but it isn't, that is another form of having your cake and eat it,too, they think that donating to the ACLU will placate all those opposed to the law, while placating those supporting it because the mighty jobs are still there, as much as I respect the ACLU they aren't the answer, because we have a court system now that will basically ignore any arguments they make and support the hard right position, only economic consequences will change the tune.
22
@music observer: The eagerness of some Americans to prove themselves idiots with their own free speech here is awesome.
3
Looks like Buckley can't do deep research.
A major donor to Pat McCrory's (NC Gov) campaign bought a GA studio and got McCrory to hobble the emerging NC film industry -- forcing production to his buddy's business in Georgia.
Please investigate the whole sorid mess.
8
Can a journalist please find out how many abortions Trump has paid for in his life? We know he has sex with anything that moves. We know he doesn’t use contraception. We know he is fertile. We know he is an idiot and doesn’t understand how a woman’s body works. We know he has lives his life covering up one slimy encounter after another.
My bet is that the number is around 12. My bet is that it is more abortions than all the past presidents combined.
What’s your bet?
26
I also believe that he pressured women into getting abortions and then forced them to sign NDAs.
20
This proves that women are the most marginalized group in the country. I am furious with people like Jordan Peele. I'm guessing if this were a black issue he would be moving his productions out of Georgia. Donating to the ACLU? You should be donating to the ACLU anyway. Y'allywood is an apt description of this group of trashy faux artists.
18
@Ann Smith I donate to the ACLU every month. Also, SPLC. Also many progressive organizations. Everyone should.
9
@Veda: What a racket it is to have to donate constantly to resist psychopaths undermining one's reserved rights and powers.
6
Jordan Peele?
The real question for Georgia and Alabama and every other state whose legislature has pushed through 19th Century anti-abortion laws is whether the majority of citizens in each state really want these laws enforced in their state. Men should not even be allowed to vote on these laws since men do not have to suffer the consequences of unwanted pregnancy.
102
So men should be excluded from voting on abortion issues because they don’t suffer the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy,
By that “logic’ lower income and middle class voters should be excluded from voting on taxes targeted at the wealthy such as estate taxes, and higher marginal tax rates
13
Of course men should be allowed to vote on abortion issues, but it should be the people's vote, not a predominately-male government decision. Women are under-represented in government.
27
@Richard P M if life begins at conception than child support payments should be backdated to 14 days before the first missed menstrual cycle.
39
To have a more impactful boycott, Hollywood ought also boycott products and services from GA and other like-minded states.
Building a set? Don't use wood or chemicals or paper products sourced from Alabama or Georgia. Feeding your crew and cast? Don't use food or beverage ingredients from the 7 states with misogynist laws. Need data/IT products or services? Get them from other states. Need to travel to/from a location? Book tickets that avoid stops in those states.
And so forth.
14
@Valuing The Post-born Persons
All of these proposals would actually be punishing Atlanta, where most of the people probably oppose the law. Data, beverages (read Coca-Cola) , chemicals? Those are all urban products. The rural counties that voted for the abortion ban will be largely unaffected..
2
Boycott the entire south.
Let them choke on their theocracy.
30
I won’t watch a show or movie filmed in GA and won’t spend my &$ on a producer or production company doing business there.
13
Do you know which shows & movies are filmed in GA?
1
I guess Hollywood believes that ethics are determined by exit polls, or as Michael Jordan so eloquently put it, Republicans buy sneakers too.
3
I have moved my business out of Georgia as well as 30 jobs. Get up and stand up for what you believe in.
34
What is your companies name & location?
2
If Hollywood is going to sit on the boycott sidelines, then they need to immediately start portraying the pro/con abortion issue as a women’s rights theme. Show the tragedy of what happens to women who cannot access abortion. Portray a doctor going to prison for life for performing an abortion. Portray a young rape victim returning to Georgia from an out-of-state abortion going to prison.
Hollywood is America’s storyteller. Start telling stories.
15
It's time to go. If they don't respect women, we don't respect them. As consumers we should avoid made in Georgia and Alabama.
19
$$$$$$$$$ for the billionaires from Hollywood so they can save some money, even at the costs of respecting women's rights!! Greed is always disgusting, but this issue needs immediate action to help stop the far right Federation from forcing SCOTUS in the next year to decide on reversing Roe. They will not be deterred from doing so now that they have a 5--4 majority. C'mon so called Liberal Hollywood, go to blue states and do your business, they have compassion for women on this monumental right that should remain a law forever! Be the few of the 1% that actually do good for this country!
10
It's a shame, because Atlanta isn't behind the new abortion law. It's the rural Georgians banding together against them uppity city folks. Atlanta is a progressive city.
10
@Benjo Sorry, but "Atlanta" is a city of just 475,000. The suburbs are deep Red.
3
Hollywood has a long history of ineffective boycotts. Add this to the list.
2
Shame on the "industry as a whole". Long gone are the days when Hollywood was a dream factory; it is nothing but a cash register. It would be nice to see some of these actors and producers who have made fortunes turn away from Georgia and create a work environment that places respect and integrity on the same scale as money. They'll clean up anyway, and they'll have clean hands as well.
7
Hopefully Hollywood and as many big companies as possible will pull out of deals with states like Georgia that have outlawed abortion. It’s also time for such big states as California and New York to boycott the same states. Women everywhere — and men — should as well. As Trump supports the restrictions, Dems need to flood the polls in 2020 and boot him and other Republicans out.
15
Yes! Contact your state governor and legislators, and leaders of your local county, city, town governments as well, to tell them you don't want your tax dollars being spent in or on those states' products a or services and that you don't want government employees (whose salary you pay via taxes) to travel to or through those states so long as they violate the US Constitution, defy the Supreme Court or in effect subjugate girls and women.
8
The right to choose is a Constitutional right. It makes me see red that these state legislators spend public funds to destroy a Constitutional right in order to promote a religious belief based on ignorance and misogyny. The slave-owning states have never reached the stage of respecting individual freedom.
20
@Lou Good
Boy, it’s a bizzarre leap from making movies in Georgia to tent cities in Los Angeles. Changing the subject much? The entertainment industry’s job isn’t housing the poor and homeless. That’s the job of the city and the state legislature. But referring to “their drivers” is the giveaway. Angry at rich people, are we? Don’t like people who have chauffeurs? You might not want to let it show so much, and guess what, people have drivers everywhere. As for people who “haven’t been there,” you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Almost everybody in the entertainment industry these days has been to Georgia. You run into people you haven’t seen in years in Atlanta hotels and restaurants. So count on it, sir: those taking oaths not to work in Georgia will eventually indeed have an effect. When you’re making a picture and three stars turn down the lead because you’re shooting in Atlanta, you’ll decide to shoot it somewhere else. If the law makes it past the first round of appeals, production in Georgia will drop radically, and overnight. You see, some of us with values will put our wallets on the line for what we believe in. It’s even possible that people in the entertainment industry have stronger values than yours, and are more willing to fight for them. I understand that upsets you, but what can you do? That’s life.
9
Hollywood has never stood up for anything except money making. They have abused women for a century, turning many young girls into nothing more than sex workers.
Please. Stay. Out of Georgia. Permanently.
8
Georgia is not forcing Hollywood to stay and give them their business. They are free to leave if they do not like this new abortion law. They can always go back to Hollywood where they welcome their liberal values.
2
And Georgia can continue living off of the actually productive states?
13
Elections have consequences. Right, GOP ???
Sad.
7
So Holywood is going to settle down where they have to pay less money....what a surprise coming from a very liberal entity....
1
Maybe the south is realizing that the biggest benefit to banning abortion is it puts the kibosh on all the Cali transplants!
Boycott Georgia and all the anti abortion states. Period. Ray Sipe
13
So typical of this town. It’s been a man’s world since my childhood and despite its many impressive civil rights and progressive gains (and I’d still live nowhere else in this country), its still a man’s world when money is to be made.
Let’s not overlook the fact that gay rights are men’s rights. When gays are threatened, of course the men of Hollywood close ranks behind them; gay men are a powerful force in LA. But as soon as their rights are secured, its back to business as usual with women’s rights all but ignored and forgotten.
I’m kind of over worrying about the rights of the gay community when it’s consistently done so little for women’s reproductive freedoms. Without women, they wouldn’t even be here and their sisters, mothers, and friends need their support now more than ever. Where are they now? Don’t come to me next time you throw a fit over your wedding cake while you are nowhere to be found when my body is being literally forced into reproductive servitude.
14
"In 2016, Disney and its Marvel affiliate rallied behind a planned boycott after Georgia signed a religious freedom bill, which was criticized as antigay and ultimately vetoed."
Yeah but this is about women's rights and no one cares about women.
12
Georgia has a right to there laws people have a right to not support them if they disagree.
Actually, no, it is NOT a right to discriminate against a class of people, and contrary to the apparent beliefs of the legislatures of Southern states, women ARE people.
11
I don’t think Georgia has the right to force a woman to give birth.
7
@sahara bing
Not to mention the state is in direct violation of federal law.
This law will never go into effect, it will set in court with an a stop order like all the other half brain hypocritical state laws like it.
6
These strict anti-abortion laws do not make abortion go away. They simply make abortions unsafe for poor women, just like in the 1950s and 1960s. The girlfriends of the Alabama and Georgia assemblymen will always be able to travel to get safe abortions. That is not changed by any law. It is the poor women who will be forced to look for unsafe local abortionists.
13
Hollywood needs to pull out of Georgia and every other state which is attempting to legislate control over women's bodies.
That simple. No question.
Hollywood: Absolutely do not do business in any of these states.
Women will boycott these movies.
11
A complete boycott — not just by Hollywood but, as others have said, sports teams, the NCAA, Big Tech, etc. — will reign in these states and their abhorrent abortion policies. And don’t stop there: no “bathroom” laws. Full rights for the LGBTQ community. Hit hard.
2
** it's a good possibility that many Pro Choice women would not have abortions but do feel it is the RIGHT of ALL WOMEN to CONTROL THEIR OWN BODIES.
That means bringing a pregnancy to term or not.
THAT IS WHAT "PRO CHOICE" means!!
This is a level of conversation that does not require a college education or "liberal" politics.
The option for men to have VASECTOMIES is a legal medical procedure. It is the man's choice to do so or not and the outcome being impregnating a women or just having intercourse - sex.
We don't see the evangelical church or government having issues because of a man is able to make his LEGAL CHOICE!!
What can we do to open minds to view points without hate or anger?
11
If they are being quiet then it's because they're worried about their pocketbooks. Hollywood goes to Georgia for the same reason Boeing went to South Carolina - cheap labor. Otherwise this would be a non-starter for Hollywood. They believe in a woman's right to choose. If you're willing to fire Rosie for a single racist tweet then how can you do business in a state that is denying half of its citizens basic human rights?
If everybody who believes in human rights fought as hard as the patriarchal right they would be crushed. It's our complacency that has allowed this to happen.
7
@Jenifer
There’s a reason African American men received the ability to vote decades before women. Race, orientation, and more have always taken precedence in this insidiously sexist culture over the rights of the female gender.
11
@left coast finch You do realize that white women were standing right there alongside their white men during the KuKluxKlan cross burnings and lynchings that were so prevalent in the south. Given that white women are the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action laws meant to level the playing field for African Americans, it is difficult to accept your claim that black men are more privileged than white women in America.
3
@left coast finch And in spite of our long and viscious history of racism, we elected a black man POTUS before we elected a woman.
Doesn't that tell you something?
3
If Hollywood stands for anything at all they must boycott Georgia for this regressive abortion law that is based on knee jerk conservatism and anti-reason. No brainer.
9
Loss of income could change minds about abortion restrictions in Georgia. After all, North Carolina's 'bathroom gender bill' written by Dan Bishop, now the Republican candidate for the 9th District US House Seat in North Carolna, was repealed by the North Carolina General Assembly after $3 billion of economic damage to the state was incurred.
12
Make no mistake. These fetal heartbeat laws are a direct assault on every last vestige of everyone’s unwritten rights and liberties, in this fake democracy that deflects blame for all of its faults with the lie that it is under God.
8
An Orthodox Jewish scholar just wrote an article explaining the Jewish view of abortion, and calling on all Orthodox Jews to leave states that don’t adhere to Jewish law - so what you really have here is Fundamentalist Christians imposing their beliefs on people of other religions. I’d love to see someone litigate it from that angle.
I hope everyone boycotts/leaves.
9
The laws are hypocritical at best. Even if you're anti abortion, there is no rule against destroying fetuses by corporations, just women and their doctors. Fertility clinics operate unopposed, frequented by the same couples who vote against abortions. Christian hypocrisy in the US knows no limits. Just look at the White House.
11
This is bullying by out of state people who want to force their will on the voters and working people in Georgia. Why do wealthy elitist liberals in California and New York want to deny the people of Georgia the freedom to choose their own abortion policy? Boycotts work two ways. I have not seen a Jane Fonda film in 50 years.
1
If you don’t like abortion, no one is forcing you to have one. Georgians have no right to force a woman to give birth.
7
@Hank
It isn't bullying. A boycott is the consequence of actions taken. Truly, the law itself is bullying/assault to women.
Georgia's legislature enacts anti-choice policy the result is people from out of state want nothing to do with Georgia. Cause and Effect in action.
3
@Hank It's not really denying them the freedom to choose their own abortion policy, though, is it? Where they spend their money is their business. Just like you not seeing a Jane Fonda film.
4
I would adore a Hollywood retrenchment from Georgia.
6
I grew up in Georgia and it’s shameful and embarrassing to see how backward and ignorant the state government continues to be.
I hope all respectable industries pull their investments out of this state until the good people of Georgia wake up and vote these bible thumping hypocrites out of office.
7
And it could easily alienate the huge swaths of the country where many people oppose abortion.
There are not huge swaths of the country that oppose abortion. The percentage of people who want to outlaw abortion is ~35 %.
7
@W
EVERYTHING liberals and blue states do "alienate" those folks, but nothing Trump does, even when it hurts them, alienates them.
As long as Kemp and his pals can keep Democrats from voting nothing will change in Georgia. Until you can get an honest vote why stay there?
I don't believe in doing business with people who want to take my rights, or don't believe I have a right to live unless it's by their draconian rules.
29
You know what they say: "Elections have consequences." And when the people of a state elect politicians (to Congress or state legislatures) who use their political positions to trample on citizens' rights, they should expect to face the consequences. There are legitimate debates to be had about abortion rights and civil rights and the Constitutional foundation of Roe v. Wade, but extremist measures like the one lpushed through in Georgia are designed to prevent reasonable discussion.
In this era of #MeToo and "inclusion riders," I don't see how Hollywood union productions can support state economies that disrespect the rights of women to have control over their own bodies, their own futures. Women hold positions of power in the film and TV industries. Are they going to passively accommodate, and even support, these attacks on their rights? It's a shame that innocent people in Georgia and other states will have to suffer the effects of their politicians' abuses of power. But elections have consequences.
7
Who ever thought that Hollywood stood up for the rights of women? Two of my aunts
barely survived this industry, even though one was married to a famous screenwriter.
A few powerful men rule the landscape as we saw with Harvey Weinstein. Sexual assault, threats of blackmail if one does not sleep with a director or a producer, gross salary disparities and few females in power is how this meat market works.
Welcome to Georgia!
11
Stacey Abrams is right: everyone has the right to express their beliefs, but a boycott in this case hurts the wrong people. The entertainment industry employs over 90,000 people in my state, most of whom oppose this dangerous bill. But those are the very people who will lose their jobs if the boycott goes into effect, not the legislators who passed the bill and not Governor Kemp. I urge people to stay and fight for what they believe in. By all means, campaign against legislators who don’t represent your beliefs, donate to causes that fight for those beliefs, and speak up!
To all the commenters demanding a boycott of Georgia I ask: did you move to a foreign country when Trump got elected, or did you stay and vow to stand up for what you believe in?
6
The purpose of a boycott is to effect change. Maybe with the impact on 90,000 jobs, Georgia legislators will actually take note.
7
@JP
A boycott will not be effective in advancing the change you want. If you put over 90,000 people out of work, most of whom are opposed to this law, do right-wing legislators care? You’re not hurting the ones responsible for this terrible law, and if moderate and left-leaning voters leave the state, Georgia, which is a fairly “purple” state, will go back to being steadfastly red.
1
And how do you know most are liberal? Georgia citizen’s elected these legislators and, unfortunately, they are the ones to feel any effect of a boycott. Sorry, but that’s how it works and they can be effective. Just ask Governor Pence of Indiana.
6
The Republican Governor in Georgia is not only into denying a woman's right to choose, he's also into denying people the right to vote.
A boycott regarding the State of Georgia and the companies with their headquarters located there is long overdue.
15
I don't know about you, but I think I'll also BOYCOTT COMPANIES ADVERTISING during shows shot or produced in these states.
13
Over time, every woman will decide whether she is safe, even briefly, in a place where she may face a medical emergency in which her doctor is legally barred from providing the care she needs.
12
What a benighted state. If I could have afforded it, I would have left long ago -- about the time the R's took control of both the legislative and executive branches of state government.
8
Ultimately it will be up to the stars. For example, The ONLY reason Sex and The City was shot in NYC was because of Sarah Jessica Parker's insistence. If the stars refuse to work in Georgia the studios will follow with grand announcements as if they had thought of it themselves. This is an urgent issue for our country, and for women's rights, it's up to the stars to just SAY NO to Georgia!
24
It's almost like chasing tax subsidies in states which do not share your values is a bad idea. Not to mention the research which suggests tax credits are actually a net negative on state treasuries. New Orleans also built a giant Hollywood presence only to lose it once it became untenable (massive studio investment aside). And it was Michigan before that. Perhaps it's time for Hollywood to come home.
9
Reproductive rights is at risk like never before. It is time for Hollywood to take sides. I am sure that I speak for many when I say that I will boycott films shot in states that have passed these vicious laws and the studios who stay on the sidelines. Women's lives and reproductive health is at risk. The time is NOW!
28
Sounds to me like Georgia is taking Hollywood for granted, thinking that their economic incentives beat the politics.
Maybe it's time for the people to take matters into their own hands and start boycotting shows made there.
That would get everyone's attention.
31
That Southeast film industry used to be based in North Carolina, Wilmington specifically, where the biggest sound stages west of Hollywood were built and operated. The NC General Assembly cut tax credits and passed the "bathroom bill", and the industry shifted to Georgia. Now, with a progressive governor, it's coming back. Please, Georgia, stay more like Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Kansas, North Carolina is happy to take back our industry.
25
They're forever going to align with their own best interests. And as it turns out, LGBT is more popular than a woman's right to choose. If enough people got fired up about this issue, that would change.
9
@Chris Hinricher
I think young people do not believe this right will ever be taken away. They did not experience sexual life pre-Roe v Wade. They did not know first hand about backroom abortions. It was 1972 before the pill was available in all states to married and unmarried women. Until young women and men understand that this right is being taken away and understand what that means to them personally these types of civil liberties will continue to be eroded. Go vote, it matters to your life, to democracy.
10
Here's the thing: the abortion law in Georgia only affects poor women who can't go out of state for an abortion. Boycotting Georgia also only affects people stuck in Georgia. It is like piling on trouble to the people already in trouble.
Better to stay there and fight rather than run away to where life is more liberally pleasing.
Also, it is the key to preserving Roe v. Wade. If the decision is left up to "states rights" rich people in those states can get all the birth control and abortions they want, but the poor will have no such luck. Roe must be preserved for the equality for poor women.
19
@DB
The fastest way to accomplish what you hope for is to financially destroy the states that are placing these bans. It will be painful but maybe they'll get out and vote Democrat next time.
20
@DB
I disagree. Southern Republicans in office in Georgia have told us their opinion regarding poor women, indeed, all women. We must believe them. There’s no appealing to their better nature, no way the film industry can help poor women by staying.
The only way you will get through to them is through their own personal pocketbooks.
A boycott is the only thing that will work.
16
Guess what? It affects middle class and some upper-middle class women as well. You don't know what other expenses other people have. Having massive medical, legal, family care and other financial burdens can severely limit one's finances. Also it's not that easy to just take off for several days for another state -- for one thing, women are often the primary or sole caregiver for family members, such as those who are children, elderly, infirm, injured or significantly disabled. Who cares for them while she is away, and at what cost?
11
Huge federal money transfers to southern States are handed over to private companies as giant tax breaks. Exactly how is this free market capitalism?
More state supported capitalism, Socialism.
24
I don't think it's just a question of Georgia's recently passed abortion law - the issue is what future role the state could play in pushing codification of a right to life into the constitution via the courts, the amendment process or some other method, effectively outlawing abortion nationwide. And given the ideological hardliners that make up the ranks of the Georgia General Assembly, I have no doubt there's a social agenda beyond abortion. Time to draw a line in the sand and let Georgia residents know there are consequences when they let their legislators run rogue.
30
@Chris
There is absolutely a social agenda beyond abortion and you can see it in the many hard right rantings that are out there online: return women to their former place of servitude to men. When women can control their reproduction, they are no longer tied to or dependent on men.
So the next item on the list is contraception. Many on the religious right blame the wide availability of contraception as the true source of all of society’s evils and ills. And don’t think that repeal of the 19th Amendment isn’t also on the agenda. That also is on the agenda of many far right men and it’s easy to find them with a simple web search.
Wake up, women and the men who support their civil rights. Abortion is only the beginning of the end for us!
19
Everyone and everything should walk away from Georgia.
Sports, movies, venues - all should find other locales that are more in alignment with the attitude that all people deserve equality under the law both economically and civilly.
38
There are so many towns and cities and states that strive to maintain and even enhance civil and economic rights for all of their citizens. All of us can exercise discretion in who we choose to do business with, whether we are scouting a location for a movie or a convention or a vacation. Georgia, Missouri, and Alabama are willing to give tax breaks and shortchange their citizens in every way that matters (health, education, criminal justice). We should not reward such behavior.
39
It should not just be Hollywood. How about sports? The men’s Final Four is scheduled to be in Georgia in 2020. Earlier rounds of that same tournament are scheduled for Missouri. The 2020 NHL All Star game is scheduled for St. Louis. The US gymnastics trials will be held in Missouri too. We’ll see if money is more important than values,
51
@JCAZ There are businesses headquartered in these states, and products manufactured there. Economic pressure has been effective in the past
7
And it's not just Georgia. We won't be going to anymore football or other sports, concerts, conferences,holidays, reunions, ski trips, festivals or universities, nor buying food, seed, plants, gasoline, heating oil, paper products, etc. from any of the states that so blatantly disregard female lives and well-being -- not to mention the religious rights of others and the US Constitution.
5
States are always trying to compete for business., and businesses make their decisions based on a number of factors, including social issues. They have that right, this is America. Their is a great alternative for those film and TV productions leaving Georgia - NEW MEXICO: great tax incentives, varied topography and locations, plenty of studios, a talented pool of crew, and the women control their own bodies in the LAND OF ENCHANTMENT. We are open for business!
47
Actors and directors should live their politics and refuse jobs that are in conflict if they feel strongly about those beliefs.
I don't see why that should be controversial or cause 'tension'.
31
Interesting to see all of the indignant comments and oaths to boycott the South forever!
Written primarily by people who have never been there, never will and, therefore, affect nothing.
Also wondering what plans Hollywood has to address the homeless problem in, say, Los Angeles and the rest of their home state. Besides having their drivers avoid those pesky tent cities popping up everywhere.
7
Most of those homeless in the tent cities come from other states because California has better social services and weather. Some Florida cities are like that too.
6
What will they do about homelessness? They will bring their money and their projects back to CA production studios and locations, and to other states that actually value the 1st Amendment and women and girls. The jobs and revenue created will (should) help alleviate housing problems.
And perhaps the reason GA has a lower homeless population (if it does) is because many people don't want to live there and won't want to live or go to school there because of its bad laws and corrupt politics and residents who disrespect girls and women, religious minorities (other than Evangelical/fundamentalist Xian), etc.
4
@Lou Good
I lived in the South for 25 years.
The only thing that has a chance of influencing politicians in Georgia is to boycott the state.
Have you ever lived in California?
5
As a native North Carolinian, I find the difference between the responses to North Carolina's infamous HB-2 bathroom bill and this equally ill-advised abortion bill unsettling. A boycott got the attention of the troglodytes in the NC legislature. One would have the same effect on the GA legislature. Looks like big business (not just Hollywood) has decided (like our highly principled president) that profits trump principles.
47
@Ernie I rejoiced at North Carolina's about face on HB-2 in the face of business boycotts. My rage at the resurgence of sex police targeting women and girls knows no bounds, let alone state lines. Two of my daughters live in would-be Gilead states. But business entities do not have principles. They have interests. It is their customers, viewers and high value employees who have the power to make it in the industries' interest.
13
What about Ohio? Why are Rock stars and the broader music industry not stepping up and speaking out about that state's anti-choice and anti-female laws?
Will the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame become the Rock 'n Roll Hall of SHAME?
33
Yes! We won't be buying any music or concert tickets from musicians who don't cancel performances in those states. It's easy enough to check a band's or performer's touring schedule before purchasing their music or tickets to their shows.
5
So we've left it up to Hollywood to defend the rights of women.
Irony has no limits.
35
I'm a native Georgian, and I'm fine with people boycotting over this. It's a reprehensible, horrific law. But you know what would really help us down here? If y'all would come and help register voters and fight gerrymandering and canvass and drive people to the polls and all the things you need to do to get out the vote. That's what's holding us back down here. Get all the voters out and things will change, I guarantee it. That's the only reason this happened -- Kemp's trying to keep his base stirred up.
83
@merrill If the people there in your native Georgia are not interested in helping themselves by getting educated on the issues and getting out to vote without being told by "outsiders", then there are other problems with the people in Georgia that can not be solved through politics.
4
Nick Allin says, "It is kind of hard to have a livelihood and a job and a career you’ve invested in since 1997 held hostage every time you turn around because someone from California doesn’t like a law in your state.”
I understand Mr. Allin's frustration. But what if he reframed his thought as: "It is kind of hard to have a livelihood and a job and a career you’ve invested in since 1997 held hostage every time you turn around because YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS HAVE JUST ENACTED A NEW LAW THAT'S HOSTILE TO WOMEN OR MINORITIES?"
72
@Cookin
Well welcome to the world of Federal Workers. Wonder if Mr. Allin cares about them?
2
I think Georgia's overstating it's hand. Lots of other states where these studios can move to and they can and will.
15
I worked as a department head in feature motion picture production for almost 46 years.
every few years "the new hollywood!!" was rolled out, and if our expertise was unique enough to warrant bringing us in lieu of hiring unseasoned locals, we, the industry's migrant workers, followed--first to mexico, then to vancouver BC, then briefly to bulgaria, then to louisiana, then to detroit, then to pennsylvania, then to ohio, and now to georgia, to work our 12-16 hour days and/or nights, watching the above-the-liners get in and out of their costly new german cars, often used in one shot of the project and then purchased by the producers at a steep, tax-break-induced discount.
every time, once the locals gained some modicum of expertise and became savvy enough to demand things like health care, a living wage, and sleep, "hollywood" moved on. it was never about morality nor certainly about ethics. just bucks. and so it will be in "mylanta", as we used to call it back in the day.
granted, the automobile tire business, for example, is probably just as cut-throat. but at least it doesn't wrap itself in a pretense of glamour and the smarm of dream-making.
12
We are totally ready to boycott any show or movie that is shot in Georgia, Alabama, and any other state that defines women and their doctors as "murderers" for having or providing an abortion.
24
Well, this is a shame once again slavery is rolling around the country. How so you might ask? It is simple in many states I could rape a woman and force her to carry my child to term and care for it. I just don't see this as Christian in the least. Many people would say well it's not the baby's fault. They then quote various scriptures, which I read, about God loving you before you were born that is true. However, the Christ that I love is not a fan of rape. This is however you look at it a moral dilemma. Did God create a woman to be cruelly raped and have a child or did he give a woman a soul and the right to live her own life?
Newton and Leibniz could not come to an agreement about free will and a divinely ordained universe, so will let the Alabama state legislature and Clarence Thomas decide for us? Gosh, I hope not.
The best course is the simplest if you don't know what is best, stay out of it. What happens between a woman and her Doctor is none of your business.
28
Shame on Hollywood. Have they no decency. They cater to the lowest common denominator of America in most of their content, but this is far more serious. They could make a real difference in the lives of millions of American women, but they won't. SHAME!
8
I agree! Shame on them for not standing up for what is right. Money is just as important to these people as it is to conservatives taking away peoples’ rights.
3
Poor babies ,they got run out of their home state by exhorbitant taxation.
1
@Alan Einstoss Who told you that? They are still subject to California taxation. Try again.
6
come to Hollywood North! Toronto or Vancouver have big film industries and Canada offers tax breaks plus you get 35% on the exchange rate. no issue w/ the abortion laws here.
Plus you get to work w/ Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling :)
15
I won’t spend a penny in any of these states ever again. Had planned a 3 day vacation in Savannah for October....just cancelled the reservation. Next time I have a layover in Atlanta I will pack a lunch too !
31
It makes you all unhappy because we here in California hold your job hostage over laws we don't like?
Well I have few things to say about the people YOU help elect president, so take a number and stand in line!
30
Women under the bus first; no surprises there. LGBT etc includes men.
12
The conservative south has the biggest mouth when railing against "Holly-weird." Now, they're making a living as tour guides and zombies on some back lots in their home state, this time, Georgia. If you get the government you vote for or do not vote for, I say: Georgia, you deserve this and more. St. Simons Island is the ONLY place in GA I'll miss. But I'll get over it. Bye-bye, Georgia.
23
Corporations that have contributed to politicians who voted for an abortion ban across 6 states:
AT&T
Walmart
Pfizer
Eli Lilly
Coca-Cola
Aetna
You know what you've got to do, friends.
28
Thank you for this useful list. I will use it and share it.
Among other things, reason 1,622 not to shop at Walmart!
22
I was about to stock up on Diet Coke and friends have been planning to do so with the re-roll-out of Zero, but we will now gladly switch to Pepsi or, better yet, just stick to water and homemade lemonade this spring and summer. And beyond. Coca-Cola company is headquartered in Georgia.
8
Abortion rights are women's rights.
14
Boycott.
Just boycott them.
13
The states like Georgia that are attacking women's control over their reproductive health should be put on the #MeToo list and boycotted.
15
Which is worse? Voter suppression, allowing Brian Kemp to steal the election or this stupid abortion bill? They are related, my friends, so no one needs to choose. The people of Georgia might want their economic interests represented. Boycott and let’s find out.
17
I was planning on a week in Savannah with my family this year. That’s canceled. I’m not spending my money in communities that elect these misogynistic clowns.
22
Georgia had a good thing going.....
And then it took off its mask.
Here I am, the state said. Oh, did you think I was someone else?
Well, I, this state, am exactly who and what I am.
I, the state of Georgia, have pretty much only given you, USA, one statesman: Jimmy Carter.
That's it.
That's the sum-total.
Weren't you paying attention when I protected my Civil War monuments?
When I protected the murderers of civil right's workers?
When I pulled voter suppression - and still do?
When I despised the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, and have demanded that women be legally unequal?
Haven't you noticed that unions don't do too well down here in the South?
Haven't you noticed how bad the schools of Georgia are in the inner-city?
Oh, yes, I, the State of Georgia, will "soften" my stance on gays, and even the "trans" folk..... for, you see, that's all about us boyz, and every corporation agrees. Even God is getting to like the gays....... but "women"?
Never.
The State of Georgia owns the copyright on "barefoot and pregnant", and, we aim to keep it. We'll make up any myth we have to to keep those women down.
They can just button their lips - and keep paying their "equal" taxes for that's the only "equal" they'll ever get in this state.
Oh, come on..... you knew I was a snake when I climbed on your back........
22
Starve the beast. Boycott Georgia and Alabama. Hollywood is filled with liberals and still atoning for its abuse of women. They should use their financial power to bring about social change. Boycott every state that deprives women of our personhood. Let’s give zero tolerance to treating women as less than full human beings.
17
Ohio also recently passed one of these awful, anti-girl/women laws. Why isn't the Music Industry, which has its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio, doing more (anything?)?? It's not like no one in the music industry, and maybe especially Rock, never had, or told a girlfriend to have, an abortion....
6
Abraham Lincoln is sounding less and less like the hero to me for preserving the union. If he had let the Confederacy peacefully go its own way and allow other states to choose which country to join, we would not have issues like reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, race, religion and immigration dominating our politics and pitting neighbor against neighbor, family member against family member. There would still be differences of opinion and interests in each country but fundamental principles would be agreed upon and upheld. For example, a woman owns her own body, including her uterus. When people cannot agree on that, there is no possibility of forging a consensus for making laws.
13
I'm not a historian, but my understanding is that the Confederacy was not likely a viable nation in tbe first place. Had Lincoln let the southern states go in peace, the northern states would have likely had to prop up the Confederacy with significant foreign aid.
6
@Peter Indeed. In fact, many northern states are currently propping up many southern states with aid. I'm tired of having my tax dollars go to states that don't respect me for being of a gender I did not get to choose. If they want to make all these anti-laws then they should be on their own financially and bear the consequences of their choices.
23
@Stef "In fact, many northern states are currently propping up many southern states with aid".
Care to provide any proof supporting that statement? I'm guessing not, since it's patently false.
After his disappointment with Amazon, pro choice Governor Cuomo would welcome the film industry, and award some impressive tax discounts. Surely there are some lovely places in rural upstate New York that could pass for Georgia.
13
Hollywood has been the left's most powerful weapon when it comes to conditioning Americans to accept the Cultural Marxists dogma. The scripts are replete with the left's agenda, often times embarrassingly so.
Much of it is even worse than what was produced by the studios to condition Americans to hate the Japanese and the Germans during WWII--it's what Hollywood does best. Probably why De Nero and company have gone delusion-ballistic obsessive on Trump--i.e., stopped working on the polis post-Obama, ouch.
But to the point, when it comes to Hollywood these days dogma matters more than money. Studio execs might want to consider moving operations to old favorite Marxist stomping grounds like New York City where it can share quarters with our Sovietized mass-media studios, or even places like San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle--brothers in arms but not so much the tax dodge.
2
Oh so believing a woman’s body is hers alone and that the state does not have the right to force a woman to give birth—that’s Marxist. But believing the state controls a woman’s body—that’s capitalism?
4
@Zejee
No one argues "a woman's body is hers alone"; it's that live human chattel she might be carrying one day--is it hers to dispose of at will?
The Atlanta season of Queer Eye was everything. And yes it did shine a nice light on the positives of Georgia. May they never shoot another episode there.
14
There is sufficient quality content in 2019 and beyond to justify a viewer boycott of anything created in states that won't respect women's rights. Hats off to Justin Bateman and others who will not use their talents within Georgia and to the thousands of consumers who will gladly vote with their eyeballs.
24
Can someone please explain to me why 'Southern, Evangelicals" get their Knickers in a Knot when it comes to a women's right to their own health decisions and yet support the 2nd Amendment. The right to own military assault weapons - killing machines. I can't find "Thou shalt own as many assault weapons as possible" in the bible". Where is the Religious Right on this issue? Where is their outrage? How hypocritical!
31
Oh the hypocrisy! The states that scream about the sanctity of life also have the death penalty.
25
They also in many cases lead the country in obesity, heart disease, pulmonary diseases, under educated, most people without any health insurance and to top it off, lower life expectancy. Put that all together and you have the bottom of the barrel which all require massive federal aid where blue states keep these other states going. We all need to boycott these states and the businesses that support them and their hate toward women.
7
Who ever thought that Hollywood stood up for the rights of women? Two of my aunts
barely survived this industry, even though one was married to a famous screenwriter.
A few powerful men rule the landscape as we saw with Harvey Weinstein. Sexual assault, threats of blackmail if one does not sleep with a director or a producer, gross salary disparities and few females in power is how this meat market works.
10
They know The Walking Dead is not real. But they should walk in dread of the consumer backlash that will be more deadly than any horde.
10
One thing has nothing to do with the other, and they need to recognize that. This idea of political retribution because you don't support someone else's opinions or morals is crass, and comes with no end. If Roe v. Wade is struck down, then what. They do all their filming in Canada? Mindless left wing politics bent on shaming and retribution based on political views. Awful.
2
@Mattbk One thing has much to do with another, if you are an employer asking women to move (albeit temporarily) into a state that can endanger your health and liberty.
6
I don’t accept your claim to any right to intrude on the internal processes of my body in the name of deity you see in your mirror.
4
So a "Christian" baker refusing to a make wedding cake for a gay couple is deemed by Hollywood bigwigs to be a human rights violation equal to forced childbirth by government edict? Even more consequential discrimination against LGBTQs in employment does not come near the consequences a woman suffers if she is forced to carry a pregnancy to term against her will. She can actually die. She will certainly incur thousands of dollars in medical expenses for even a normal vaginal delivery, not to mention premature labor and Cesarean section delivery and ,amy unknown complications. She can lose a job or wages not covered by paid medical leave, which many employers do not provide. Not mentioning the emotional trauma for nine months, strained relationships, and the physical pain of childbirth. But Hollywood bigwigs know all of this, and yet they take polls that show public opinion divided on abortion and proceed harvesting their state tax breaks and padding their profits. Oh, I see where women's rights and lives fall on their checklist of values and principles worth sacrificing profits for.
16
It's very simple, Hollywood. If you worry about losing anti-abortion viewers, the rest of us will simply boycott any show with Georgia connections.
(I am sorry for the good people of Georgia who do not agree with the new law and have to suffer for it).
10
@ml Everyone is "anti-abortion". You mean you're "anti-choice". I don't know one "pro-choice" person who is "pro-abortion". So interesting how you framed that.
8
@RCJCHC
Please stop spreading religiously-manufactured shame that’s has zero basis in science. All such morality is artificially assigned by humans seeking to stigmatize and control others, especially women.
The sooner we stopping treating as “murder” the elimination of unwanted cells that are nowhere near any sort of existence that can stand apart from the uterus they occupy, the sooner we can move on to addressing the pressing, critical needs of contraception, woman who want children but can’t afford them, and the millions of unwanted children languishing in foster systems and orphanages worldwide.
I am most certainly “pro-abortion” when any woman wants or needs an abortion and there is nothing inherently “wrong” in saying so. When I received my abortion while still trapped in a radically fundamentalist, evangelical baptist high school, I was crippled with guilt. But when I finally graduated, gained distance from that environment with its oppressive mind control, and began studying far wider views of the historical use of religion as social control, the guilt melted away. In fact, once I embraced agnosticism, a whole host of mental health symptoms began to lessen, significantly.
So it is with abortion. It is neither good or bad, moral or immoral. It is a medical procedure that the religious right has assigned a moral label to muddy the debate and further the destruction of women’s reproductive freedoms. And when you equivocate on its “morality”, they win.
10
@left coast finch I have no idea why you wrote that to me. I'm a devout Atheist and my comment was about calling "pro-choice" people, "pro-abortion", which is simply not true. I am pro-choice but I don't go around telling people to get an abortion today! I believe abortion is a medical procedure to be discussed between doctor and patient. I think you misread what I wrote.
3
The right to an abortion is a civil rights issue. Deafening silence from MEN in Hollywood who can never experience an unwanted pregnancy.
18
@Boggle
For Hollywood, NY & VA it's only about the civil rights of the mother.
For Georgia it's mostly about the civil rights of the chid.
For those of us in the middle (most of America per Gallop's polling) it's about the civil rights of both; focusing mostly on the mother's right to autonomy early in pregnancy transitioning to the child's right to live as the pregnancy progresses.
No woman should be forced to bear a child. Life begins with the first breath. That’s my religion
1
"If nothing else, Hollywood knows its audience. While Americans broadly support gay rights, for example, some studio executives have noted in private conversations that the country is far from united on the issue of abortion."
Hollywood is waffling, because the moguls are pretty much all still men. And a lot of them are gay, which explains their different stance on gay marriage.
As Gloria Steinem said, if men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.
16
This issue has to be another focal point for Vlad Putin’s drive to break up the US.
4
The problem with a boycott in Georgia is that there are thousands of us here who completely agree with a woman’s right to choose. We can’t pack up and leave. Our homes and livelihoods are here. We agree that Kemp
Is an illegitimate governor who lied and stole his way into office. All we can do is fight them at the ballot box. I know the good people of Georgia outnumber the religious zealots who make us all look bad. I intend to do all I can to end their reign.
138
@Gregory H Johnson Thank you. Keep fighting the good fight.I'm glad to see that many productions are donating to the ACLU and to Stacey Abrams campaign for change.
32
You can do more than vote - you can volunteer or get a paid job campaigning against them. You can canvas your neighborhood and beyond and educate people around you. You can donate time, money, services, space, expertise, and needed objects and food to organizations fighting against those kinds of laws and lawmakers, that better educate residents of GA with truth regarding pregnancy and abortion and religious diversity and the importance of respecting that. You can educate you fellow residents (especially outside wealthy areas) about national and state civics, including the nature and meaning of the US Constitution and its Amendments. You can educate (or help others educate) fellow residents about women's and girls' lives and realities. You can build compassionate, smart communities and start organizing groups to engage in the aforementioned efforts and more.
Good, and effective, citizenship does not start not end at the ballot box, although showing up and using the ballot box is critically important.
25
@Gregory H Johnson
I have no idea if your Governor is illegitimate or not. Apparently, your legislature passed those laws and your Governor signed them.
What is painfully obvious to me is that the currently entrenched powers in your state are determined to suppress the votes of their opponents by any means at their disposal, including denial of registration, locating polling stations 75 miles from those voters, not supplying power cords to voting machines in the unfavored districts, egregious gerrymandering, ...
You live in an outlaw state and if you want to fix it, voting won’t be enough because the opponents votes aren’t going to be counted. You will need to make these practices unacceptable.
I don’t expect my denial of business to be the deciding factor. I do because I won’t be a part of supporting such a thing. I wish I could cut off any of my federal tax dollars that go to such places as well.
Good luck in your fight.
17
Whatever we get twisted about? That’s rich, since the whole point of the law is about people with one set of beliefs blocking other people’s right to control their own bodies, and the intent is to take it national. The passage of this law affects me very much, since I’m the one who can get pregnant here. I’m guessing Nick Allen can’t.
Yeah, I’ll take my eyeballs elsewhere. You want to turn your state into Gilead, I’m not supporting you. Right on, Hollywood.
41
It is highly offensive for those in any wealthy big business (including these Hollywood related industries) to try to dictate what public policies citizens in a particular state like Georgia should adopt. Since when was it acceptable for wealthy elites to dictate to poor and middle class citizens which social policies they should embrace? Hopefully the arrogant 1 percenter presumption of these entitled Hollywood bosses will result in citizens refusing to pay money to see their films, etc. Democracy is too important to give it away to wealthy elites like these moguls.
2
@Wesley What force? They simply do not want to bring their employees into that environment. Is that not their right?
5
@Wesley
and... it's highly offensive for anyone else to make a law that controls my body. Boycott, heck yes!! No more Walking Dead in this house.
You republicans seem to want fewer taxes and less government, but don't seem to be able to stay out of our bedrooms. If you value each and every life, then start supporting welfare and poor single mothers. They are going to need it even more, by the millions. Your taxes will go way up.
7
Nobody is dictating anything. You can choose how to spend your money any way you want.
5
More moral posturing and preening from an industry that contributes almost nothing to national well-being.
Who cares what Hollywood thinks ? Do we worry about what the meat-packing or janitorial supply industries think about politics ?
2
Do those industries have a major economic impact on Georgia? Hollywood does.
4
It is a civic duty to boycott these states trying to impose total control over women.
29
@77ads77
Boycott Coca Cola ... Georgia's most iconic product.
Unfortunately, I can't think of a similar product for Alabama.
10
@Observer
Forest products are a top contender. AL apparently is 2nd largest supplier of wood and other forest products, including pulp used to make paper products. I think Georgia is big on paper production, so sourcing paper products elsewhere and getting your local businesses to do the same, would have impact (think not just printer paper, and toilet paper, napkins and paper towels, but also grocery bags, cardboard boxes and signage and furniture, liner paper, paper straws, etc.). Also plywood, composite board, etc.
Alabama also is big in the chemical, auto, and biotech industries. And let's not forget their shrimp and other food stuffs. Shrimp Louie and Scampi and cocktail and sweet and sour shrimp and shrimp with walnuts and shrimp toast and even nutritional supplements that include shrimp all are better with shrimp from states other than AL, MS.
2
@77ads77. Not total control. The vast majority of abortions are a result of women neglecting to exercise there reproductive freedom when they are deciding who to engage in a potentially reproduction activity. Acts have consequences and in a country where science is persuading many that the many thousands of post 12 week abortions being performed every year are morally wrong, it is appropriate to legislate consequences for those later term abortions.
1
There is no reason to make money from people who are actively denying women access to full health care. Period, case closed. No more business with any of the states that have passed these cynical laws. And women should close up shop as well until these clods stop interfering where they are not wanted.
13
"tension"
Sure.
I in"tension" to NOT watch ANYTHING Hollywood produces in Georgia.
And not buy anything from Georgia.
13
@Matthew. Maybe you would stick to your guns but you would be the rare exception. If they film another Avengers movie or a movie version of Game of Thrones there, even the President of Planned Parenthood will sneak into a theater to see it.
Dear Hollywood,
Oregon has no legal restrictions on abortion. In fact, we just made it mandatory for health insurance to cover abortion and provided additional tax payer money to include those on Medicaid. We also have tax credits for the film industry and no sales tax. Feel free to send your business here.
31
Hope all Hollywood walks away from Georgia. There are consequences for declaring war on women. Canceled my trip to Savannah. Planning to spend my travel dollars in Northeast and CA.
27
Make, "Made in the Confederacy," economic poison and perhaps the antediluvian south will eventually get the message that it's not 1850.
13
At least Hollywood is making some effort to fight this backward thinking law. But what about UPS, Home Depot, and Coca-Cola, they're all headquartered in Atlanta?
Haven't heard a peep from them.
22
Anyone working in the film industry experiences random fluctuations in opportunity because of tax incentives. And it is very disruptive to our lives.
However, I want to respond to this Mr. Allin's comment: "It is kind of hard to have a livelihood and a job and a career you’ve invested in since 1997 held hostage every time you turn around because someone from California doesn’t like a law in your state."
This is not just any law; it's a law that diminishes women to a degree that no decent person should tolerate. Shame on you Mr. Allin for not having an awareness of the severe and draconian nature of this law. I wonder if you would be so cavalier if the law effected your rights or bodily integrity.
27
These Hollywood production corps. are as bad as the farmers. Welfare much? Making money hand over fist, but they sure do love their taxpayer subsidies. Stop Hollywood (and farmer) welfare — every where.
7
The message is boycott Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix and other titans of the film industry, as well as Georgia, for not supporting women's reproductive and abortion rights!
8
Consumers and the creative class drive our economy and can influence politics.
10
If Roe v. Wade is struck down by the Supreme Court will all of Hollywood move production out of the United States?
3
There will be massive demonstrations across the nation if that happens.
2
I have been an admitted Tab/Diet Coke addict for too many years. My doctor's recommendation that I quit has been ignored, until this vote. When I read that Coke contributes money to the men in the GA legislature, that was it for me. I quit and won't go back. I used the Contact Us tab on the Coke website, but never got a response.
22
About 20 years ago, the leaders in the State government in Louisiana had the foresight to (both) install rapid internet lines to Hollywood, plus, slashed the tax rates to lure the film industry here. It worked, very well, too.
Now, the same State Government (different people, however), did not have the foresight for the same reasons as Georgia. The repercussions are going to backfire on everyone here.
I currently live in Louisiana, the state I was born in. It is also the first state (outside of California) which began to aggressively cater to the film industry.
Outside of New Orleans (a true melting pot; well over 300 years old), by far, most cultures in Louisiana are either black or white.
This lack of multiculturalism was the primary reason I moved to Manhattan, New York, NY in the late 1980s and thrived; more than I could have ever hoped to. In 2015, I lost everything and then some. Late the next year, I was (unfortunately) forced to move back here; even though all my birth family and almost all of my old friends were dead.
4
It is a myth that today's Republicans are good for business. They are good at short term tax breaks but also good at recessions, and The Great Depression.
29
@Tamy
So much more complex than that. Harvard grad?
3
Boycotts are in effective way to induce social change. This sounds like a very good idea.
19
Once again women take a back seat to others.
Gay rights are worth a boycott; women's most basic right, when to become a mother, is not.
There's no way a company like Disney is going to do the right thing and go for a boycott; they'd never risk the backlash that churches (the major bastion of anti-female thought) might engineer against Nemo and Aladin.
But influential actors, producers and directors on their own can and should make their feelings known. And a boycott sends the message, especially if there's a big star-studded press conference.
30
@DD
Just a reminder that "gay" rights are everyone's rights. That's what equal protection under the law means.
Also a reminder that most in the LGBT community are outraged by what is going on in Alabama and Georgia, and — in addition to supporting a boycott on products coming from these two states — we are continuing to put our time and money into helping Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other organizations fighting for women's rights.
Because even if I can't have an abortion, any attack on your rights is an attack on mine, as well.
Don't let the conservatives and extremists behind these abominable laws divide us. That weakens us and lets them get away with their abuses. That's what they want.
16
@Alex
Well said!
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Why are you pitting cisgender women against LGBTI people? I’ve had an abortion and I’m bisexual and nonbinary and I’m married to a transgender woman. I have co-organized Planned Parenthood support rallies and fought for LGBTI equality. Boycotting a state for severely restricting abortion sounds perfectly reasonable to me and a lot of other LGBTI people.
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North Carolina went through this a few years ago when it was the original Southern location for many Hollywood shows and movies. This was before our newly elected Republican legislative leaders in 2010 decided to take back the tax incentives for film and television and essentially send Hollywood to Georgia. Our representatives wanted to teach those liberal elites something and in the process cost the state the industry and lots of jobs. We also grappled with an infamous bathroom bill that Hollywood was opposed and that is still costing the state jobs. The common denominator here is Republican conservative leadership in the statehouse passing laws that are now antithetical to many businesses that want to be inclusive. While Hollywood may balk and play wait and see to this new wave of conservative legislation in the South it won't have to wait too long as leadership is embolden to do more. But one thing is for sure--if Georgia pulls its tax breaks to Hollywood they'll be gone in a heartbeat.
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As a long-time Georgia resident, this whole situation saddens and frustrates me.
Atlanta is as diverse and liberal a city as you'd like; the capitol of the New South, and with more than half the population being African-African, an important cultural center. CNN, Turner Television, and Adult Swim are all produced out of this city. It's hardly am artistic backwater.
But we also live at the mercy of a legislature and governor's office dominated by the state's rural white majority, and that's not likely to change for at least a decade. Every time we pass by that golden-topped dome, made with metal mined from land stolen from the Cherokees, we are reminded that while the city is ours, we have little to no say whatsoever in how our state is run.
The truly sad thing is that most of the people who work in Georgia's film industry are Atlanta and Savannah residents who have little affinity for the religious dogma of their neighbors, yet the hammer will fall hardest on them, while the chief backers of this bad legislation get to continue farming pecans and peaches, whistling aboard their tractors while their city brethren are forced to move.
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@AJ Garcia. Well said. We are getting closer with each election to flipping this state, and the film & TV workers will help us get there - if they remain.
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@AJ Garcia
The entire United States is like Atlanta. The more progressive Majority is being ruled and dominated by a right-wing Minority. This is happening on every national issue.
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@AJ Garcia: I know many folks who live in Atlanta and rave about how wonderful it is. A small voice inside me keeps saying, "but it's still in Georgia."
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I wrote to CBS that I would no longer be watching one of my favorite shows, MacGyver, because it is filmed in Atlanta.
I doubt my one letter will change the world but it didn't cost me anything to hit the send button. And my to-do-list has more selections than Netflix so I'm sure I can find something else to do with an hour on a Friday night.
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So disappointing to read that in spite of all the high-minded talk, it all comes down to money in end.
The nation sends American troops to stop the Taliban and, according to men like George Bush, bring freedom to women in the Middle East. Okay, you can stop laughing now, but that was what he said when there were no weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.
But here at home, it's like the Taliban on steroids when it comes to the treatment of women. This has nothing to do with "life" and everything to do with power -- keeping women in their place, or in jail if need be.
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It is unfortunate that Georgia has elected a governor that is taking the state backwards. Because of the tax benefits Georgia has offered to the movie industry, it has become a large employment connection. I had hoped this move would have continued to help the state to move forward, provide Georgia with a better image.
It is unfortunate that this decision will probably and negatively affect the future considerations of corporations, but also continue to add to the already "backward" mentality and image for the south.
Already people have commented they would never want to live in the south just because of this. As a native Georgian, I agree. Disappointed and embarrassed that we have become the laughing stock of the nation. I watch the rants and raves of our representatives accomplishing nothing, adding to the embarrassment.
With so much negative response, one would think Georgia would rethink their position, offer intelligent decisions for the good of the state. Instead we have a governor whose hillbilly campaign ads, and "hunker down" speech takes us backward. And it affects all Georgians.
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We are as close to a cival war as we were the day before John Brown conducted his raid at Harpers Ferry. Our country is in an "us against them" battle when they are us and we are them. The use of economic power to go against one state or one group of citizens will only widen that gap - it won't stop what's going on and it won't reverse what has already happened.
As a male, I really don't have a dog in this fight, but I do have children, nieces and a wife who are affected by what is going on and that bothers me. I think that Mother Teresa said it best in a discussion with the Pope - You don't play the game, you don't make the rules.
There are more women than men in this country and in every state where these laws are being written the population of women to men is greater. Why aren't women standing up for their rights?
Men don't belong in this conversation, women are not chattel. Women and women alone should be the ones making this decision.
For what it's worth, I think the Fourth Amendment pretty well covers the problem. This should have never been an issue, women own their bodies and these laws represent unreasonable infringement.
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I’m pretty cool with secession. If the fundamentalist want their own slice of Gilead, go right ahead. Let them figure out how to live without my liberal and generous federal tax subsidies.
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I would not want my future in Georgia. If I was raising a child I would want that child to have equal rights. Women will never be equal if the State or Government is in control of their bodies. No matter what anyone says, this law will have a long term economic impact on the State.
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With Delta Airlines HQ being in Atlanta, does this mean that flying Delta is going to be tantamount to supporting these laws? I'd venture to say that most customers are going to boycott Georgia only when convenient to them.
On the other hand, if there was a good job opportunity with Delta HQ, I can see where these laws would affect strongly if one is willing to move to Georgia to work there. At some point businesses located in the state are going to feel the crunch.
It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
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I‘m boycotting Georgia because of the state’s anti-abortion law and the lack of protections for LGBTI people. I’m a bisexual nonbinary person married to a transgender woman. Traveling to Georgia would be too dangerous for us, and a state that encourages service refusals is not for us. The Deep South will lose money. I will do everything I can to encourage the region’s economic isolation.
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@MarcusAurelius: I’ve travelled between Delaware and Florida through Georgia multiple times. Don’t tell me who I am or what I will do. I have a friend in North Carolina, but I won’t travel there, either.
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Also, one of my favorite places in the world is Sanibel Island, Florida. The last time I went there, in 2015, I changed planes in Atlanta on my way to Fort Meyers. The alternative route is through Texas, not any safer for trans people than Georgia. And Florida is not very safe for us, either. While I would like to visit Sanibel, it’s not worth the danger to our physical safety and personal dignity. I have a gay cousin in Orlando, too, but I have no plans to visit him, either. A gay white man like my cousin is safer in the South than my transgender wife.
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@Lisa: Trust me, Orlando is not the deep south. I grew up in rural North Carolina and live in metropolitan Orlando. They are two completely different cultures. We are extremely LGBT friendly. Always have been, but even more so since the Pulse nightclub massacre. It is a point of pride for our community.
As a film industry professional I can say Georgia has had a troubled history with below the line Hollywood including the on set death of camera assistant Sarah Jones which never would have happened on a LA or New York set. Producers have now for years not only gotten a hefty tax break in Georgia, they have gotten a blind eye turned toward established on set discipline and rules fostered by hungry wannabes with less experience and a tolerance for lower wages and studio cost saving shenanigans. For instance-in Atlanta I witnessed troubling wage and workplace treatment of locals hired as extras that would simply not happen in LA. I doubt the Georgia residents quoted in this article who have worked as extras are aware of the inequalities. It will take a great deal of political upheaval and anger to send the Producers back to the far less tolerant Hollywood.
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My husband and I are retiring soon and want to travel. We have money to spend, but we will not even pass through, much less stay and visit, any of the southern states because of these types of laws taking away women’s rights. The voter suppression that takes place in many red states also disgusts us. We'll spend our money on food, gas, and lodging in states that respect civil and women’s rights.
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@Mary B
Same here. Instead we are traveling to any other place but the South.
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For me it’s very simple. I will not attend any movie filmed in Georgia, or in any state that has passed draconian abortion laws. Nor will I travel to these states. Nor will I, to the best of my ability, patronize any business based in those states. I believe that economic pressure is the only force to which these legislators will respond. Certainly decency and compassion will get an icy reception there.
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@Avatar, Then don't fly Delta or drink a Coca Cola. I live in GA, and I do neither.
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I refuse to fly ANY American based airline. Period.
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@JL22
Agreed. I do neither as well.
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Studios may be wise to think of the long term ramifications of State-controlled pregnancy.
As women and girls above 12 years old or so may become pregnant at any time (and pregnancy tests cannot detect pregnancy immediately), laws like these allow State oversight of a fetus or potential fetus.
For example, stress can be considered a threat to a fetus, so to protect a fetus (which may be inside a woman or girl’s womb before even she knows it), the State government of Georgia, Alabama etc would have the legislated mandate of intervening in a Studios treatment of any female performers. No strenuous work, shorter hours, no stressful scenes, nutritionally balanced meals, frequent breaks etc.
A woman may start a production not pregnant, but could be pregnant the following day or any day of shooting. As it is not feasible to administer daily pregnancy tests to all women (performers and crew), the State could simply legislate oversight of any females of child-bearing years (12 to 50) and therefore install a State overseer for fetal protection on all productions in their State (required to receive tax breaks and incentives).
Consider the law of unintended consequences (or, for many backing these blanket, “give me a gold star because I’m so moral” bans, intended consequences).
Not a great incentive for production companies in the long run.
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@Other
What century are you living in where females don’t reach puberty until age twelve? I’m in my seventies, a bona fide Baby Boomer. I could have become pregnant when I was ten, and women worldwide are reaching sexual (though not emotional or legal) maturity even earlier today. In fact, a study in 2014 revealed that, under certain conditions, girls can reach puberty at age FIVE.
And, speaking as one who matured physically very early, I look back on my teenage years as an endless battle against grabby hands and grinding hips. It’s amazing that I did NOT become an unwed teenage mother. Several of my friends were not so lucky.
Republicans cheated to win, and Brian Kemp is governor because people who were qualified to vote were not allowed to vote because there wasn't an 'exact match" on their names on their voter registrations and their driver's licenses - meaning a misplaced comma, or no middle name included on one.
53,000 voters were not allowed to have the votes they had cast counted.
Republicans also discounted people who didn't have a street address because they made it a law to have a street address. That means that every homeless vet living in the State of George with a post office box and an address there where he receives veterans benefits cannot vote there. We're talking about people who sacrificed for this country - their rights were stripped away from them in the State of George. None of their votes were counted because in accordance with Republican's strict voter ID requirements, they were counted OUT.
Georgis, now being ruled under a man who did not really win - Brian Kemp - is under a state of siege.
Any state that has imposed such restrictions to voters and denied our citizens the right to vote is under a state of siege.
Georgia should be boycotted by ALL businesses until the Republicans stop taking away a person's right to vote.
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@Jbugko - Your homeless vet arguement does not hold water. I was once homeless and am a veteran and never had a p.o. box address. An agency provided a street address for us to pick up all of our mail and I'm sure any VA case manager could find a similar program.
As for the voter registration stuff - how hard is it for a person to take a look at their voter registration card and see if it matches i.d. flawlessly months and months before any election and just get it all sorted out? Come on.
I really, really don't understand the backwards way people out east vote. Here, we vote by mail. Anyone that goes to get a state i.d. or driver's license, food-stamps, or housing assistance is asked on the spot if they would like to register to vote. If the answer is yes, they use the same info and voila, registered. About a month before any election, we get a ballot mailed to us and we have two choices for returning our ballot - either put a stamp on it and hand it back to the mailperson OR drop it off in any of the numerous ballot boxes around the city. These boxes are huge blue metal bins that look like a Goodwill drop off box except they are pretty foolproof. Even the homeless haven't cracked them yet. They are usually by any library, community college, etc. Last election, I voted on a Saturday night around midnight at my desk listening to some Frank Zappa while smoking a bowl. I spent about an hour and a half voting - no rush at all, no lines.
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@tom harrison
I hope it was Frank with the Mothers of Invention.
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@tom harrison
In my state, AZ, Republicans are working to strip away the right to vote by mail, too. That after closing 2/3rds of polling places, mostly in Democratic areas. We should be encouraging and helping all citizens to vote not trying to impose measures they hope will disenfranchise people from the opposing political party.
1
It's all about what you believe is right until money is involved. I'm sad to read that many in the movie industry aren't standing up for their beliefs, which are easy to claim in California, but much more costly here in GA.
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All the problems will be solved when Democrats finally get around to passing a law making abortions legal and unrestricted nationwide. But what have Democrats been doing for 50 years anyway? Even many of the two dozen or so Democrats running for President have never introduced a bill in Congress to permit abortion on demand without restrictions.
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@Robert Borman Ever since Roe v Wade, all believed it wasn't needed; it was established precedent. It still may be, or not.
21
Agreed, and the gay community has made the same mistake by assuming our right to marry is protected by the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. Gay advocacy groups should be working double time to codify same-sex marriage equality at the state level, because the Supreme Court could take it away at anytime. The far right have their judges, with Trump adding more everyday. We are on a downhill slide to rolling back hard fought rights only recently won.
6
Maybe Democrats are afraid of the election consequences of being pro abortion or maybe they are lazy. Laws have been chipping away at Roe v Wade for many years. But what is stopping Democrats, especially women now?
Abortion is one reason to boycott. I’d argue that voter suppression is a much bigger reason because it makes it much harder to have a truly representative legislature. That means none of their laws are truly legitimate, including perhaps this abortion law.
I doubt the movie industry will wholesale abandon their investments. More likely is that their films will experience some boycotts, although not much.
The entire state will have a tougher time economically, although it will be hard to measure. My family has abandoned plans to vacation in the Carolinas for a family reunion. We want nothing to do with the South for many reasons, including racism, Trumpism, homophobia, voter suppression, climate change denial, ... The list is endless. We don’t expect those things to change. We just can’t enjoy ourselves in that kind of environment.
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@Jazz Paw It's always interesting to read the bigoted comments about the south from non southerners.
The people in my southern county voted for Stacy Abrams and Lucy McBath. They are not racist and they are not climate change deniers or bigots. They are good decent people and yet they interact daily with others who might not have voted the same way they did.
The world that I inhabit looks nothing like the one that you "apparently" think exists in Georgia and the other parts of the south and I personally don't know too many people like the ones you referenced in your comment. I also know that those type of people are all over America. Lots of them live in California and the Midwest.
The Republicans have power in Georgia. But there power is waning. The abortion issue is one that is intergenerational and in the state or Georgia it's even non partisan. Most Republicans I know are pro choice and there are a lot of anti abortion Democrats. Too
27
@William
I am expressing my point of view about the governing of your state, whose representatives have been elected by its citizens. I find it hard to understand how your comment makes sense when these policies and beliefs are apparently vote getters.
It is true that we have bigots and climate change deniers in CA, but we have a much lower percentage of them and we purged a bunch of their favorite representatives in 2018.
I feel sorry for those of you who disagree with these policies, but apparently they are popular in your state. But the overriding sin committed in your state that is indefensible is the systematic denial of the right to vote to its legal citizens.
I don’t hold you responsible for those things, but I choose not to patronize your state or support it in any way. We may not be perfect in CA, but our citizens get to vote and their views are reflected in our laws. Apparently, in GA and other southern states democracy is a Jim Crow affair.
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@William
I can't agree enough. The comments on this piece and and others over the recent weeks about Georgia have been eye opening to me. I hate what the Republicans are attempting to do in our state, I really do. But these personal boycotts aren't going to hurt them, and the idea that a progressive could not come here (or the Carolinas) and enjoy a vacation reeks of righteous indignation and, as you say, comes from a place of bigotry.
Georgia in particular has a lot to promote as a growing state: GT and UGA both offer very high quality, affordable public education, the HBCU's are something of treasure, Atlanta has been growing for years, and the land and coast are beautiful. Not to mention Stacey Abrams was a hair's breadth way from winning the Governorship, something I never thought would happen for Democrats here. The fact that she lost because of unethical voter regulations tells me the state needs just a bit more progressive push to get to a better place.
If progressives want our 16 electoral votes, have the guts to invest in us. Boycotting will lead to more conservatism, not less.
I want to encourage the NYT to do some digging into the cross cultural good of GA. You can help make a change here by highlighting our potential to those who stigmatize us in some of the most vitriolic ways. Look at how many comments say the Union should have let us go. Thank goodness they didn't, or we still might have slavery. Instead, we have a chance at progress. Fight the good fight.
8
The lesson to be learnt: When one's primary business objective is to buy the least expensive one must expect to find unacceptable behavior from the seller.
Georgia (and the entire southern states) have decades of history didactically demonstrating their social norms and societal culture is entirely opposite that of the Los Angeles basin, of which 'Hollywood' is included. Greedy behavior by executives, not only the entertainment industry, but all others places their companies' futures in peril. No right thinking, well educated person would seek to live in the regional societies found in the majority cities and villages of any southern state.
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I think David Simon (creator of The Wire, Treme and The Deuce) put it best when he said he would not consider Georgia for any of his productions because he cannot in good conscience bring his female colleagues and employees to a state where their civil liberties and health choices are curtailed. This ultimately is about whether producers value the female creatives, workers and executives with whom they work as full, autonomous human beings with the same rights as their male counterparts. The studios of course will do nothing because they only care about dollars, so producers and creatives will lead the fight.
And as much as I would've liked to have watched Ron Howard's take on Hillbilly Elegy, there is absolutely no way I will watch the film now that I know it's being shot in Georgia.
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Time for Hollywood -- and any other industry for that matter -- to disinvest from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and any other state that bans or restricts abortion. The only thing their legislators will understand is the economic fallout of their retrograde policies.
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@Christy
Won't happen unless Roe is overturned. Then it will be a war between the states.
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@George
can we pay you to secede? please don't let the screen door hit you...
@Christy
And time for viewers to boycott shows produced there.
The results of the CBS poll strikingly show the less than adequate critical thinking skills of those who participated. Don't strike down Roe but restrict or ban abortion altogether.
The message must change and an indistry as big and influential as Hollywood can help. We're not fighting for choice anymore. We're fighting for BODY AUTONOMY. There are no laws on the books that restrict men's bodies. Women demand the same. The Constitution grants us the same freedom yet politicians want to withhhold complete freedom from women BECAUSE we're women. We're not going back. We're not going to take it anymore. And we will fight for what is our RIGHT at the ballot box and in the courts.
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@stacey d
Perhaps such polls, which due to their number may indeed be assessing the national mood correctly on this issue, are not demonstrating "less than adequate critical thinking skills of those who participated" as much as poorly worded or overly broad questions. On abortion, for example, the reason you see the seemingly disconnected response is due to one question question being quite general (supporting abortion over all) and follow-ups being more specific (e.g, the farther along the pregnancy, the lower the support). That shows quite the opposite of what you say - people clearly ARE thinking critically about it. The same applies in other areas of larger public concern, like single-payer or Medicare for all, which people may generally support actions in a broad term but often balk when specific details emerge.
As the old saying goes, details matter.
5
@George S Indeed, I have taken a couple of telephone polls on different issues and the questions were phrased in such as way that the pollsters could draw almost any conclusion they wished from my responses. I don't participate in any telephone polls now because I don't answer phone calls from any caller I don't know. But if I did, I would hang up as soon as the bias of the pollster became apparent.
3
A dozen A-list actors might help Hollywood's cause. Of course it would help even more if the voters of the Democratic city of Atlanta decided to stand up. They make up 60 percent of the state's population and 80 percent of the state's GDP.
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@Ralph braseth We Atlanta Democrats have been unified in opposition to these reactionary policies; there are just not enough of us, yet. If the film industry continues to grow here, then the percentage of more progressive voters will reach a majority - which is just what the reactionary Republicans are afraid of.
The statistics you cite give the misleading impression that city of Atlanta Democrats make up 60% of the state's population. Not true. Atlanta is a solidly Democratic city, but not yet populous enough to swing state elections. (The surrounding metro counties are more mixed politically, but are gradually trending Democratic.)
As Atlanta continues to grow (with the help of film & TV workers) it will swing state elections, the way Chicago does for Illinois. If, in a misguided quest for purity, the movie business pulls out of Georgia, it would only help make the state more conservative, and more likely to re-elect Kemp.
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@Baxter Jones
Are these film & tv workers moving and voting in Georgia, or are they voting in their home state?
It makes a huge difference.
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@William Feldman Yes, I have friends who have moved here for work in that field, and they plan to stay. Unless a boycott makes it impossible.
6
The Cincinnati area has become popular with movie makers the past few years, due in part to tax breaks.
I hope that the same thing happening in Georgia happens here as well.
Women's rights are more important than entertainment.
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Boycotts aren't all that effective? I guess Stacey Abrams will no longer support any boycotts called to put moral pressures on states. Perhaps it's just in Georgia where she might seek elective office again and wants to play both sides of the fence.
17
The right in Georgia seems to have a pretty good understanding of political power, but not so much economic power. Potential threats from Hollywood are but one aspect of this. Atlanta has a big convention business that could suffer if trade organizations start to pull out.
Economic power is what talks in the United States today. Next to that, everything else is secondary.
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We are a lot more powerful than Georgia. Let's remove every military base. Let's not do any more business with Lockheed. Also farmers are Trump supporters, so lets remove all farm aide from the federal government.
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@Keith Dow
Wouldn’t it be nice if our representatives would stop trying to send our blue state tax dollars to these backward states. We have enough of our own economic problems to address with that money without adopting their welfare clients, corporate and otherwise.
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Those moves should get a lot of votes from the people adversely affected. Rather than pass a National law allowing unrestricted abortion, Democrats can campaign on telling people they will lose their jobs because of the abortion restrictions.
Get out or I don't watch anything produced there, not even or ever on Youtube or whatever alternative media vehicle its on. That includes air flights.
Alternatively, Georgia stop now on passing abortion laws or others that limit women's access to medical care and science in the larger sense.
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Yawn, standard play from corps to feign outrage and play to the audience for the next few weeks.
I would bet if Saudi Arabia made the studios a better offer, they would be opening up shop there. Did we already forget the Khashoggi affair?
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@HistoryRhymes you're not wrong. The difference here is that it is not just a matter of messaging, but the literal health and safety of the workers on these sets.
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@HistoryRhymes. So silly...trump is the one who suppressed khashoggi incident. Not a chance people who support women’s rights would flip to blatant anti human rights country.
1
Yo, Hollywood! Time. To. Leave.
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