Bosma cool to compromise gay-rights bill that was advanced by state Senate committee

A day after a Senate committee advanced a bill that would exclude transgender people from a gay rights non-discrimination bill, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Thursday that he has “yet to talk to someone who thinks the bill is a good idea.”

The bill, which also carves out religious exemptions for clergy, adoption agencies and certain not-for-profits, narrowly passed the committee after being decried by Democrats.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said the bill—Senate Bill 344—faces an uncertain future in the full Senate.

Bosma said he preferred a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate in employment and housing, and leave the question of public accommodations including what to do about wedding-related businesses, for another time. That was the approach Utah legislators took on the issue of balancing religious rights and LGBT rights.

“I wish we had a better compromise to work from,” Bosma said. “Advocates on all sides seem to be opposed to it with very few exceptions.”