Pence signs 'religious freedom' law

Senate Enrolled Act 101, which takes effect July 1, exempts individuals, including businesses, from state laws and local ordinances if a person claims the law violates his or her religious beliefs, unless the government can show the burden is the least restrictive way to further a legitimate state interest like public safety.

Pence, a Republican, said the new law assures people of faith who feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action that courts will apply the heightened standard of strict scrutiny when reviewing the constitutionality of laws that potentially interfere with religion.

"This bill is not about discrimination, and if I thought it legalized discrimination in any way in Indiana, I would have vetoed it," Pence said. "For more than 20 years, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act has never undermined our nation’s anti-discrimination laws, and it will not in Indiana."

The new law easily passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled General Assembly: 63-31 in the House and 40-10 in the Senate. All region Republican lawmakers voted for it, while every local Democrat voted no.

Nineteen states, including Illinois since 1998, have similar laws on the books. Though Indiana is the first to enact a "religious freedom" statute following the widespread legalization of gay marriage last year, suggesting to some it is intended to authorize discrimination against gays.

Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter issued a statement after witnessing Pence sign the bill. It thanked the governor on behalf of the state's pro-life community.

"This bill will give pro-lifers a necessary legal recourse if they are pressured to support abortion against their deeply held religious beliefs," he said. "Religious freedom is increasingly under attack in our nation. We saw Hobby Lobby win its case against the federal government's Obamacare mandate to provide abortion-causing drugs because of a defense hinging on federal RFRA law."

A social media campaign fueled by Open For Service has rallied opponents of the bill.

Among them is Denise Naparla, owner and manager of Unity Studio Body Arts in Valparaiso. She was disappointed she never heard a response from the governor in the weeks leading up to the bill signing.

"It's pretty obvious it's a discriminatory bill," she said. "The bill is allowing people to turn homosexuals away specifically because they're homosexual. What that has to do with a business is beyond me. How do you tell that somebody is gay when they walk in the door and what makes their money any less?"

Naparla thinks the bill will drive out the businesses that support it.

"I would never discriminate against somebody who comes in here," she said. "I'm a gay woman. I'm not a Christian woman, but I would never turn away a Christian straight person, so what makes it OK that now it's legal that I can get turned away?"

Attorney Mark Coleman, from the Law Offices of Mark Warren Coleman and Associates in Valparaiso, was disappointed in the bill signing and said he wouldn't be surprised by objections to its legality.

"There will always be someone who wants to stand up on the right side and fight for what's right and may challenge it," he said. "Whether it will go anywhere, you don't know."

Coleman said he didn't understand why anyone would turn away business. 

"If somebody walks into my office, I don't care if they're Democrat, Republican, black, white, straight, Christian, atheist," he said.

Coleman hoped Pence would take a look at possible consequences of signing the bill, such as conventions pulling out of Indianapolis and locally.

Speros Batistatos, president and CEO of South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority, doubts there will be an "appreciable effect" from the bill in the northwest corner of the state.

"We are a very inclusive industry," he said.

If there is any backlash, it may be felt in Indianapolis, which is the face of politics for the state, he said.

White Lodging Services, the management company for Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza in Merrillville, issued a statement in response to the bill Thursday.

"White Lodging has always been, and will continue to be, committed to providing inclusive service and hospitality at our hotel and restaurant properties," said Kathleen Sebastian, director of communications for White Lodging Services.

The Rev. Geraldine Colvin, minister at the interfaith Unity of Northwest Indiana in Hammond, said spiritual leaders throughout the ages have stood for inclusion.

"To me, I don't know how (Pence) can characterize it other than discriminatory," she said. "It makes it legal to turn people away under the guise of religious freedom."

Colvin, who performed one of the first same-sex marriage ceremonies in the state, said her staff and congregation feel passionately about this issue. "When it comes to making a state law that makes it OK to limit our service to other people just does not seem right or fair," she said. "It doesn't seem sane to me. I really feel like I want to move out of Indiana. I don't want to be a part of something moving backwards."

Jen Steliga, owner and manager of Monarch Florist and Events in Schererville, had not read the bill in full Thursday morning but said legislation that could be interpreted as discriminatory is a setback.

"I just feel like if people would discriminate, then you shouldn't be in business," she said. "When your doors close, I'm not going to feel bad for you, small local business person."

Steliga said she thought media coverage twisted facts on the Hobby Lobby case involving their opposition to covering some birth control and wondered about the coverage of this measure.

"There has to be more to this that we're not seeing because it's that crazy," she said. "It's like the '60s again. So we're not going to serve black people? Are we going to go back to that? I would never do it. If anything, I would put a rainbow flag in my window."