Sandy Springs state Rep. Wendell Willard, who also serves as the city’s attorney, caused a stir on Feb. 27 when he banned picture taking and video recording during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
The incident arose over Willard’s concern that gay rights advocates misused the video-taped testimony of a person speaking in opposition to a bill that would extend workplace discrimination protections to gay, lesbian and transgender people.
Willard, who chairs the committee, moved to bar cameras during a subcommittee hearing after video of a previous hearing was broadcast on the internet. The video showed Feb. 21 testimony from Tanya Ditty, state director of Concerned Women for America, about HB 630, a law that would expand workplace discrimination protections. In the video that has outraged gay and lesbian activists, Ditty compared homosexuality to pedophilia and necrophilia, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Project Q. Atlanta. Project Q uploaded the video onto YouTube.
Willard, who is also a co-sponsor of the bill, said Project Q abused its privilege to record video. Project Q says it did not record the original video that was uploaded to its YouTube channel. The video is titled “Tanya Ditty Becomes Georgia Gold Dome’s Latest Anti-Gay Bigot” on YouTube. On the Project Q. website, the video is linked in an article titled, ” Georgia’s new anti-gay Hater-in-Chief.”
Willard said the group used the online video “as a way of intimidating individuals coming before the committee.” The video of the testimony appears unaltered, but has a brief montage intro featuring in rainbow flags and other images associated with the gay rights movement. Willard said the ban only applied to hearings on that particular bill and was not meant to apply all future hearings of his committee.
“That’s not the reason we allow people to do videoing,” Willard said. “We want people being given their constitutional right to express their views.”
Project Q said the original video was uploaded by an employee of Concerned Women For America, but has since been removed.
A video of Willard on Feb. 27 making the motion to ban video recording and picture taking was posted on the GAVoice’s Youtube channel. The GA Voice is a LGBT news organization. At the end of the video, a Capitol Police officer is seen ordering the person filming the hearing to turn off their camera. The person filming asks why.
“We very much support First Amendment rights and free speech,” Willard, as shown on the video, told the audience. “It is No. 1 … everyone who comes to this committee should have the same right to express their positions, even though I or others may disagree with her. As the old saying goes I may not always agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. I strongly believe that.”
According to the AJC, Willard’s remarks came before the committee voted to approve changes to make the state’s Open Records and Open Meetings laws.
State Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-DeKalb County, was chairing the subcommittee hearing when Willard made the motion. Jacobs is also a co-sponsor of the anti-discrimination bill that the subcommittee was considering.
“That is totally the call of the chairman and I am not the chairman of the full committee,” Jacobs said.
See video here:
Here is the video that Willard said prompted the ban:
