Children’s entertainment companies Disney and Marvel are threatening the state of Georgia into dropping its religious liberty legislation, highlighting the power of the homosexual lobby and the extent to which liberal “tolerance” is a mere code word for intolerance of Christian morality.

Marvel, which is owned by Disney, films many of its projects in Pinewood Studios just outside of Atlanta and brings welcome revenue and jobs to the state. The companies are now threatening to cease filming in Georgia if Gov. Nathan Deal signs into law HB 757, “The Free Exercise Protection Act.”

Disney and its superhero subsidiary join AMC as well as a group of 34 individuals in Hollywood, including celebrities such as Kristin Chenoweth, Anne Hathaway, Seth MacFarlane and Julianne Moore, who are threatening to stop working in Georgia.

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“Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law,” said Disney in an official statement.

But the bill in question doesn’t in the slightest enshrine discriminatory practices into state law. Also known as the “Pastor Protection Act,” it is worded specifically to protect only pastors, houses of worship, and faith-based organizations from having to partake in homosexual unions.

There are “much more robust bills” in other states, said Georgia state senator Josh McKoon, a supporter of HB 757. “We carefully crafted the final compromise,” excluding protections for for-profit businesses (like bakers and wedding photographers) and adding “non-discrimination language that had been called for,” noted McKoon.

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“Frankly we’ve gotten almost as significant of a critique from the right for … the bill not being significant enough protection” for religious liberty, McKoon said. One can only assume that either the virtues-signalling, politically correct cowards at Disney headquarters — and the mainstream media — didn’t bother to read the bill and caved at the slightest stirrings of pressure from the homosexual lobby, or they hold Christians and Christianity in utter contempt.

The LA Times, Vanity Fair, Slate and others describe the law as an “anti-gay bill.” Unfortunately “most of the media organizations that cover the state capitol are left of center and they’ve just bought into this narrative that’s been peddled by the LGBT groups that this legislation is somehow intended to be hostile towards the LGBT community,” McKoon said.

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“They have this notion that allowing people to live out their faith is somehow de facto discrimination.”

Like all business decisions Disney’s boycott comes down to the bottom line. “What you’re seeing from these companies is an opportunity to get — at a relatively cheap price — positive public relations,” said McKoon. “They’re able to say we’re standing up for tolerance and inclusion … using the Georgia general assembly as a foil.” The hypocrisy is staggering.

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“Most of these businesses do business in countries with extremely oppressive regimes that have horrific human rights records,” noted McKoon. “In many cases these companies do business in … countries where being LGBT itself is a criminal offense, so the notion that they’re going to pull out of a state that has very friendly tax and regulatory environment over how free the people are to practice their faith is just absurd.”

Of course, Disney and Marvel don’t have to worry about pressure from the homosexual lobby in those countries, which has “pioneered the sort of economic extortion where they call out companies” with “veiled threats,” noted McKoon.

Ultimately “it’s really about [homosexual groups] intentionally misrepresenting the issue in order to advance a separate political agenda,” McKoon said. That agenda is to silence all opposition, however passive, to the homosexual lifestyle and to suppress traditional Christian morality.

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“There was a fascinating exchange that I had during the floor debate on this” bill, noted McKoon, who asked a Democrat “do you believe that a church that teaches traditional marriage should be subject to tax?” She “refused to answer the question and eventually said, ‘well if we have a societal consensus in 10 or 15 years then maybe.’” When asked “if churches should be able to enforce morality contracts … she said no.”

“When you start digging in and you start asking these questions,” said McKoon, “it’s an incredibly chilling picture that gets painted” of what “folks in the other party … would do if not restrained by statute.”