The thing with living in Georgia is that there ARE a lot of issues statewide, and I think I’d go insane if I didn’t work in a field that at least let me try to address those issues.

Oh yay! My sister has her PhD in neuroscience and I love hearing about her research. The human brain is SO FASCINATING.

Yeah, UGA has already protested heavily, and UGA is a BFD in Georgia. The story I heard from our eyes and ears at the Capitol is that right after the House passed the bill, he went to them and was like, “Hey, there are childcare centers full of small children on our college campuses, and there are tons of high school…

One of my pet projects at work is civic health, a lot of which is connecting people to community and helping them feel like they have a role and a voice in civic life. So I’m totally with you on that.

If you ever come back, check out the new Center for Civil and Human Rights that is right next door to the World of Coke. It’s fantastic.

Our Pride is awesome!!! And, I mean, Elton John had a house here for years. It’s a fun place.

This thread is making me want a peach SO BADLY. I think our biggest food export is peanuts, but I’ll take peaches any day.

I hate it, too! My work is funded by a national, progressive organization for which every state has a grantee (my organization, the grantee for our state, is non-partisan). So I meet up with people from every single state - and Puerto Rica and the US Virgin Islands! - several times per year, and you come to understand…

Southern CT, but not quite the Greenwich crowd, but Madison, close to New Haven. Those were the snottiest, meanest, most racist kids I had ever met in my life, and I say that as someone who grew up in Georgia. I’m sure the adults held similar views, but I interacted mostly with kids because I was there for two years…

I am so glad that I never have to layover at Hartsfield. Woof. But yeah, the intown neighborhoods are great - Grant Park, Cabbagetown, Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park (though it’s getting kind of yuppy), Reynoldstown, Sweet Auburn, Castleberry Hill, Little Five Points, all good destinations.

Atlanta is weirdo- and progressive-friendly. The population of the city itself is pretty progressive, and we look like any other city. I mean ... it’s a big city, so it’s really diverse and no one would need to hide their weirdness or non-comformity here. I say this as the friend of plenty of weirdos.

No, the little bit of time I spent in Tucson, I liked it. Phoenix was terrible, though. There seemed to me to be a lot of racist wannabe old cowboys there.

Totally. I just don’t really leave the city limits. Stay inside the perimeter and life is, if I dare say, peachy.

I think it’s a common dynamic. I’ve heard the same about a lot of cities. Hell, I lived on the coast in Southern California, and if I drove 40 minutes inland, you could find Klan.

Atlanta is pretty great. I’ve lived in Connecticut, Maryland, Tennessee, California, Arizona, Boston, you name it, I’ve lived there. And I think Atlanta is preferable to all those places, and I think, say, Connecticut and Arizona are on the whole horrible. But that’s just a matter of opinion.

Well, these kinds of bills have already passed in a bunch of other states, and Gov. Deal has been pretty anti religious zealot. I don’t like the guy and I didn’t vote for him, but it could be worse. I’m sure you live in paradise.

Atlanta proper is great for the LGBTQ community! Just not the rest of the state (though the AJC recently published an article with the headline, “The growing gay belt north of Atlanta,” because so many Republicans outside the city limits voted down the religious freedom bill, though I found the headline absurd).

I work in the policy arena in Georgia. Deal has already indicated that he’s going to veto the bill. He also appears to be setting up a path to veto campus carry. Today is Sine Die, and his signing period begins tomorrow, so we should see action soon.

The governor has already floated it at the Capitol that he plans to veto the bill, and may also, in a surprise move, veto campus carry as well because he doesn’t like the bill at all. He also recently ordered an executive mandate lifting a federal ban on drug felons receiving SNAP and TANF, so that former inmates can…

I really don’t think a five syllable name is that bad. I mean, my first name has three syllables by itself and that never presented any stumbling blocks for me. Like, an example of what you’re worried about it, say, Elain Hamilton. Thomas Carpenter. Asha Milani. Those do not seem like mouthfuls at all to me. Aren’t…