SB 320: "Georgia Civil Rights Act of 2025"; enact

Georgia currently has no single, comprehensive state civil rights law covering housing, public accommodations, and employment the way federal law does in other states. This bill would add sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and familial status as protected categories throughout Georgia's existing fair housing law (O.C.G.A. Title 8) and its public employee fair employment law (O.C.G.A. Title 45), while replacing the outdated term "handicap" with "disability." The bill also creates brand-new protections that do not currently exist in state law: a public accommodations law letting anyone denied service due to their protected traits sue for an injunction and attorney's fees, and a private-employment anti-discrimination law covering employers with 15 or more workers, letting employees sue directly. It creates an "End Racial Profiling Act" banning police from targeting people based on protected traits, requiring agencies to collect stop-and-search data, and having the Attorney General publish an annual report. The state would partially waive sovereign immunity to allow lawsuits over racial profiling. The law would take effect January 1, 2026.

• Adds sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and familial status as protected categories in Georgia's fair housing law, alongside existing race, color, religion, sex, disability, and national origin protections.
• Creates a brand-new public accommodations law (new Title 10, Chapter 16) letting people sue businesses that deny them equal service based on protected traits, with courts able to award attorney's fees.
• Creates a brand-new private-sector employment discrimination law (O.C.G.A. § 34-1-11) covering employers with 15 or more workers, giving employees a direct right to sue for discriminatory firing, hiring, or treatment.
• Creates the "End Racial Profiling Act" (new Title 35, Chapter 11), banning police from targeting people based on race or other protected traits and requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt anti-profiling policies and report stop data yearly.
• Extends the same expanded list of protected traits to Georgia's public employee Fair Employment Practices Act (O.C.G.A. § 45-19-21 and related sections), replacing the term "handicap" with "disability" throughout.
• Partially waives the state's sovereign immunity (legal protection from lawsuits) so people can sue state or local governments for injunctions and attorney's fees, but not money damages, over racial profiling.

Landlords, real estate agents, and housing providers; businesses that serve the public; private employers with 15 or more employees and their workers; state and local government employers and employees; police departments and officers statewide; and any Georgian who believes they were discriminated against based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, familial status, religion, or national origin.

Georgia currently lacks a comprehensive state civil rights law covering private employment and public accommodations, meaning many discrimination claims rely only on federal law. This bill would let Georgians sue directly in state court over discrimination by private businesses and employers, and would require police departments to track and report racial profiling data annually.

• Part I (Sections 1-1 and 1-2) names the act and states legislative findings that Georgia is one of only three states without comprehensive civil rights protections.
• Sections 2-1 through 2-5 amend Georgia's fair housing law (O.C.G.A. §§ 8-3-200 to 8-3-205) to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and age as protected classes and remove the term 'handicap'.
• Section 3-1 creates a new Title 10, Chapter 16 giving all persons the right to equal enjoyment of public accommodations and a civil right to sue for injunctions and attorney's fees.
• Section 4-1 creates O.C.G.A. § 34-1-11, a new private employment discrimination law covering employers with 15+ employees, allowing employee lawsuits with back pay limited to two years before filing.
• Section 4-2 creates the 'End Racial Profiling Act' (new Title 35, Chapter 11), banning profiling, requiring agency policies, data collection, and an annual Attorney General report starting July 1, 2025.
• Sections 4-3 through 4-14 revise Georgia's public employee Fair Employment Practices Act (O.C.G.A. Title 45) to add the expanded list of protected traits and remove 'handicap' language.
• Section 4-15 adds O.C.G.A. § 50-21-38, waiving sovereign immunity for racial profiling claims seeking injunctions or attorney's fees, but not monetary 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 (Senado)
2. 2025-03-03Senate Hopper (Senado)

• Sonya Halpern (D, SD-039)Patrocinador principal
• 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 rights