Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state's bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Its entries reach back to 2004 and record bills it passed on state-funded medical treatment and school policy, alongside the redistricting sessions it has convened.
2025 Events (2)
Georgia Gov. Kemp signed SB185, barring state-funded gender dysphoria treatment for transgender people in state prisons
On May 8, 2025, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 185 into law, barring the use of state funds or resources to provide gender dysphoria treatment - including hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery - to people in Georgia state custody. The law singled out incarcerated transgender people for the denial of medically recognized care that many had already been receiving.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Riley Gaines Act, barring transgender athletes and ending gender-identity recognition in sex-segregated spaces
On April 28, 2025, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 1, the "Riley Gaines Act of 2025," into law. The act bars transgender girls and women from participating on female sports teams from K-12 through college, requires restroom, locker-room, and sleeping facilities at athletic events to be separated by birth-assigned sex, and defines "sex" in state law by birth-assigned sex. The measures end state recognition of transgender residents' gender identity in the covered contexts and create a private right of action against schools that do not comply.
2023 Events (1)
Georgia Gov. Kemp signed SB 140 banning gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for minors
On March 23, 2023, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 140, barring licensed facilities and physicians from performing gender-transition surgeries or providing hormone replacement therapy to minors under 18 for gender dysphoria. The law, passed by the Georgia General Assembly, provides narrow exceptions for disorders of sex development and grandfathers in minors already on hormone therapy before July 1, 2023. Violations expose physicians and facilities to discipline by the Georgia Composite Medical Board, including permit revocation.
2022 Events (1)
Georgia Gov. Kemp signed HB 1084, authorizing K-12 ban on transgender athletes in girls' sports
On April 28, 2022, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed HB 1084, the "Protect Students First Act," into law at the State Capitol in Atlanta. A last-minute floor amendment added April 5, 2022 empowers a newly created executive oversight committee to adopt a policy barring students whose gender is male from competing on girls'-designated K-12 athletic teams, with noncompliant schools forfeiting state QBE funding.
2006 Events (1)
Georgia Gov. Perdue signed law requiring parental opt-out disclosure for school clubs, targeting Gay-Straight Alliances
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed SB 413 into law on May 5, 2006, an omnibus amendment to the state's compulsory school attendance statute that added new Code Section 20-2-705, requiring local school boards to publish every club's name, purpose, and faculty advisor in student codes of conduct and to give parents or guardians a form to decline their child's participation in any listed club. The provision followed the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance-type club (PRIDE) at White County High School, and contemporaneous reporting and the bill's legislative opponents identified it as aimed at disclosing and letting parents veto students' participation in LGBTQ-supportive clubs.
2004 Events (1)
Georgia General Assembly referred same-sex marriage and civil union ban to voters as constitutional amendment
On March 31, 2004, the Georgia General Assembly gave final passage to Senate Resolution 595, referring a proposed constitutional amendment to the November 2004 ballot that would define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, bar state recognition of same-sex civil unions, and strip Georgia courts of jurisdiction over related claims. The Georgia House cast the decisive vote 122-52, clearing the required two-thirds supermajority, after the Senate had earlier passed the resolution by the same threshold. Georgia voters approved the measure as Amendment 1 on November 2, 2004, by a 76 percent to 24 percent margin.