The State of Georgia, if this is news to you, is a prime location for television and movie shoots. Indeed, it is considered by many to be the top filming location in the world.
Despite that, Georgia recently shot itself in the foot with the entertainment industry, and it could cost them dearly.
There is no point in debating the tactics or effect. Ethically, as an employer, I cannot ask my female colleagues to work in a jurisdiction where their health care options are curtailed and their civil rights are specifically compromised. They have to work elsewhere. https://t.co/jslJqBlnB0
— David Simon (@AoDespair) May 10, 2019
Simon’s production company, Blown Deadlines, is one of three production companies who have said they won’t continue to do business in Georgia, after Gov. Brian Kemp signed his near-total abortion ban into law on Tuesday. The other two companies are Killer Films and Duplass Brothers Productions, and CounterNarrative Films swiftly followed suit.
Don’t give your business to Georgia. Will you pledge with me not to film anything in Georgia until they reverse this backwards legislation?
— Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) May 9, 2019
Killer Films will no longer consider Georgia as a viable shooting location until this ridiculous law is overturned.
— Christine Vachon (@kvpi) May 9, 2019
Add my company CounterNarrative Films (w/ #jcchandor & @annagerb) to the list. No Georgia filming on any of our projects until this law is gone. We’re with you @kvpi @MarkDuplass & @AoDespair https://t.co/KL4hFogV1y
— Neal Dodson (@nealdodson) May 10, 2019
The Writers Guild warned that Hollywood crews would leave the state over the abortion ban in March, when the legislature considered passing the bill. The union group told BuzzFeed News it stands by its statement, adding that lawmakers are making the state “an inhospitable place for those in the film and television industry to work, including our members.”
Alyssa Milano, who sent local lawmakers a letter signed by 50 other actors opposing the ban in March, also said she’s boycotting Georgia. She said she won’t return to the Netflix show Insatiable if the third season is filmed in Georgia.
If the State of Georgia is committed to living in medieval times, that’s it’s business. But it looks like they’ll be doing it with less cash in the coffers. I really hope that this boycott shakes Georgia to the rafters. This new law is sick. It describes a fetus as a “natural person” and stands to criminalize an abortion at any time after six weeks — which in the real world is a time when most women don’t even know they’re pregnant. The law is beyond draconian, it’s flat out misogynist insanity. I’m glad to see people standing up to it and hitting Georgia where it hurts, straight in the pocket book. I hope we see more of this. This is grassroots activism at its finest.
Yesterday our state house minority leader Emilia Sykes posted something on Twitter I’ve been thinking for days: that there’s zero point in pushing to renew Idiohio’s film tax credit in light of the recent passage of the “Heartbeat” bill, and the upcoming votes on a two-week ban, a ban on private insurance coverage for abortion, a ban on most effective types of contraception, a requirement that treatment for ectopic pregnancy includes re-implanting the fetus in the uterus so it’s not an abortion, a procedure that doesn’t exist, and now, we’re hearing, a new bill funding abortion reversal, another procedure that doesn’t exist. Em posted an article about the Georgia boycott pointing out that obviously they weren’t going to choose Idiohio as a substitute location.
What you just wrote is so effing bizarre that if I didn’t know better I would swear it was parody, Hand to God. “Re-implanting the fetus?” And the procedure doesn’t exist? “Abortion reversal?” I need to lie down.
The men who propose stuff like that not only don’t listen to medical experts, but also most of them sound like they avoided *all* the sex-ed and biology classes that they were supposed to have taken before getting to college. (I want their diplomas revoked, all the way back to grade school. They sound like they dropped out at about the age of 12.)
This isn’t about medicine, this is about sociology. They want to control women. Period, full stop.
It’s not JUST about controlling women. It’s also about keeping the poor poor. The state reps that passed this law can send their wives, daughters and mistresses out of state for their abortions. It’s also about inciting a lawsuit. They know they will get sued for this bill. They know they will lose in lower courts and will keep appealing in hopes of getting it to the SC where they hope Roe v Wade will be overturned.
You’ve nailed it, Jay. Thank you. That’s exactly where this is headed and why. I marvel at this. I remember when Roe v. Wade was passed and I marveled then, because Nixon was in office, and it seemed so progressive and right. (I was a young girl, but still old enough to understand politics and how unusual a sane bill was in that day and age.) Now, I marvel because it’s the 21st Century and we’re going backwards.
And you’re spot on, the Haves will not suffer. Cushy clinics and good medical care out of state for them. The Have-nots are totally screwed.
When it comes to legislators who mix stupidity & misogyny into a lethal brew that threatens women’s lives, Idiohio takes a back seta to no one.
Someone needs to re-implant a fully functioning (as in one capable of actual learning and reason) brain into these goobers.
They’ll never learn. They will hang onto their “way of life” even while the rest of the planet moves ahead, electing women and gays as prime ministers, having legal abortion — you name it. If we don’t get rid of Trump and quash this backwards, backwoods, uprising, we are going to fall way behind the rest of the civilized world. I’m serious.
I’m a registered nurse and I don’t understand how anyone can legislate that a nonexistent procedure be done. Republicans continually vote to deny healthcare to people and now their mandating imaginary surgeries WTH?
My answer to that a few days ago is that this is reproductive terrorism. The GOP needs to get out of everybody’s pants. This is beyond backwards thinking, this is just plain evil.
Thanks for dropping by again, Ray.
These misogynist yahoos are trying really hard to turn their states into Gilead. I hope more than the film industry takes similar steps against Georgia, Alabama and any other backassward state that has decided women do not deserve to be treated as thinking adults capable of making their own decisions about their own lives and healthcare. It’s the 21st century for godsake!
Can’t agree more. No, it goes beyond women not being treated like thinking adults. It goes more to the question of them not being treated as human beings. This is reproductive terrorism, and I don’t care if I sound melodramatic. That’s how I read it.
It is terrorism, no two ways about it. I’ve watched Handmaid’s Tale (read the book years ago when it came out) and I think there is no way any of it could happen. But you see these kinds of steps taken by the backward states and realize that this is how it begins. A woman who is not allowed to control her own reproduction is livestock, per a meme I’ve recently seen.
That’s the size of it. I remember watching the movie version of Handmaid’s Tale. I happened to be very depressed at the time, won’t bore you with why, and it really made an impact on me. These draconian laws in Idaho and Georgia are the first step on the Road to Gilead. And Alabama has the same legislation in the hopper, they’re just delaying on it, probably due to this firestorm.
I hope this really blows up in Georgia’s face.
I can’t say it any better than all of you commenting already did. The only thing they understand is, take their money away, and go f#ck yourself, literally.
If anybody holds the line here, even one production company, it will be good. One thing I can tell you about that business, is that all aspects of it are competitive. Trust me, the minute it was found out that people were on the outs with Georgia, emails started pouring into these companies offering alternate facilities in other states or in Canada. That’s how it works. Brian Kemp is a moron — but you knew that.
Why is outlawing contraceptives a GOOD THING? The very name of the products say it all …. preventing pregnancies, absolutely prevents abortions … who is SO STUPID to think otherwise ?
Something tells me there is a particular influence from the religious right … and this is certainly wrong in so many ways …
Contraceptives can even prevent transmission of STD’s and AIDS ….
Darrel, you’re preaching to the choir. Contraception is the way. My God, if I was young or had a young daughter in Georgia, I would make taking birth control pills the first thing done every single day. If the laws are insane, you can’t afford to break them.
A good friend of mine was a nurse for Planned Parenthood for several years, and the horror stories she had of abject ignorance of the subject of sex and reproduction, STD’s, etc. that came through their doors was stunning, in the 21st century! When people (children in some cases) don’t even know how their body works, let alone how to manage budding sexuality, or in some cases, how to ward off inappropriate attention, you need a back up plan. Contraception, abortion, all need to be available to those who need/want it. Georgia and all other primitive states that want to attack women this way need to pay. Besides the film industry, I’ve seen suggestions that concerts, conventions, sporting events may also be good targets, ala North Carolina and their stupid bathroom bill. Why can’t repugs stay out of our pants?
It is astonishing, isn’t it, the Republican obsession and the evangelical obsession, with genitalia? They’ve just GOT to control somebody’s uterus. Or, God forbid, somebody is born homosexual, they’ve got to stamp out that behavior, and demonize it. I have pondered why this is for many years and never come up with an explanation that makes any sense.