SB320: SB320 "Georgia Civil Rights Act of 2025"; enact

Georgia currently has patchwork civil rights protections spread across housing, public employment, and a few other areas, but the bill's preamble says Georgia is one of only three states without comprehensive statewide civil rights laws covering employment, housing, and public accommodations. This bill would expand Georgia's fair housing law to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and age as protected categories, and would remove the outdated term 'handicap' in favor of 'disability' throughout multiple titles of Georgia law. The bill creates a brand new public accommodations law giving people the right to equal enjoyment of stores, restaurants, and other public-facing businesses regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, familial status, or national origin, enforceable through a lawsuit. It also creates a new private-sector employment discrimination law covering employers with 15 or more employees, and a new 'End Racial Profiling Act' requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt anti-profiling policies, collect data, and report annually to the Attorney General. It amends the existing public employee fair employment law to add the same new protected categories, and partially waives the state's sovereign immunity so people can sue over racial profiling violations for injunctions and attorney's fees, though not money damages. The law would take effect January 1, 2026.

• Adds sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and familial status as protected categories under Georgia's fair housing law (O.C.G.A. Title 8, Chapter 3).
• Creates a brand new statewide public accommodations law giving all people the right to equal enjoyment of businesses like stores and restaurants, enforceable by lawsuit with possible attorney's fees.
• Creates a new private employment discrimination law covering employers with 15 or more employees, letting employees sue directly over discrimination based on race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or national origin.
• Creates the 'End Racial Profiling Act,' requiring every Georgia law enforcement agency to adopt anti-profiling policies, train officers, collect stop and search data, and report the results to the Attorney General each year.
• Amends the state's existing public employee fair employment law to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and familial status as protected categories and to remove the term 'handicap' in favor of 'disability.'
• Partially waives Georgia's sovereign immunity (the state's legal protection from lawsuits) so people can sue the state or local governments for declaratory judgment, injunctions, or attorney's fees over racial profiling, but not for money damages.

The bill affects renters, home buyers, and landlords under the fair housing changes; customers and owners of businesses open to the public; private employers with 15 or more workers and their employees; state and local law enforcement agencies and officers; public employees and state personnel agencies; and the Attorney General's office, which would gain new reporting duties.

If enacted, Georgians who face discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or age in housing, public businesses, or private-sector jobs would gain new legal grounds to sue, categories not currently covered by Georgia's existing civil rights statutes. Police departments would face new data collection and reporting requirements meant to track and curb racial profiling.

• Part II (Sections 2-1 through 2-5) rewrites Georgia's fair housing law to add sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and familial status as protected classes and drops the term 'handicap.'
• Part III (Section 3-1) creates a new Chapter 16 in Title 10 establishing a right to equal enjoyment of public accommodations, enforceable through a civil lawsuit with possible attorney's fees for the prevailing party.
• Part IV, Section 4-1 creates O.C.G.A. § 34-1-11, a new private employment discrimination law covering employers with 15+ employees, letting workers sue and recover back pay (limited to two years) and other equitable relief.
• Section 4-2 creates the 'End Racial Profiling Act' (new Chapter 11 of Title 35), banning racial profiling by police, requiring policies, training, data collection, and an annual Attorney General report starting July 1, 2025.
• Section 4-2 also lets the Attorney General or an individual harmed by racial profiling sue for declaratory or injunctive relief, and allows proof of 'disparate impact' to serve as initial evidence of a violation.
• Sections 4-3 through 4-14 revise the state's Fair Employment Practices Act and related personnel rules to add the new protected categories and remove 'handicap' language throughout Title 45.
• Section 4-15 adds O.C.G.A. § 50-21-38, waiving state sovereign immunity for racial profiling lawsuits seeking injunctions or attorney's fees, but not money damages.
• Section 5-1 sets the effective date as January 1, 2026, and Section 5-2 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-03-04Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2025-03-03Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Sonya Halpern (D, SD-039)Primary sponsor
• Harold Jones (D, SD-022)
• Kim Jackson (D, SD-041)
• Sally Harrell (D, SD-040)
• Elena Parent (D, SD-044)

• civil rights
• housing discrimination
• employment discrimination
• racial profiling
• LGBTQ protections