Does anti-gay marriage bill threaten Georgia’s film industry?

Corporate concerns over Georgia's latest battle over "religious liberty" legislation has taken a new urgency following passage Friday of a measure allowing opponents of same-sex marriage to cite their beliefs in denying services to gay couples.

And that includes a warning over the weekend from those in the entertainment industry that the state’s careful cultivation of the film industry may be about to implode because of it.

“This very assembly working on this bill has invested billions of taxpayer dollars growing an industry that would leave this state,” said Brian Tolleson, who owns an Atlanta-based digital entertainment company called Bark Bark and works with studios and media companies from New York City to Los Angeles.

“They will boycott coming to shoot anything here,” Tolleson said. “The powers that be in the industry really want to defeat Georgia’s rise as entertainment destination. And we’re handing it to them on a silver platter.”

To find out what that could mean for Georgia and why Georgia Baptists and others say that fear is unfounded, go to our expanded story on our premium site at myajc.com.