During an installment of the “Noon Edition” radio show on WFIUin January, one of the Republican leaders of the Indiana Senate offered some hope that the General Assembly understood it would not be wise to lead the state toward the perception that Indiana condones discrimination — or worse, the fact of state-approved discrimination itself.
State Sen. Luke Kenley, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, mainly talked about the budget, in which he’s very involved. He also was asked whether a so-called religious freedom bill would grab some headlines in the session and what he thought of its prospects.
“Everybody’s pretty sensitive to the fact that discrimination in any form, whether it’s based on the marital situation, or race, or religion or other things. ... They’re pretty sensitive that this is not an area you want to try to stir up too much and create too many problems on,” he said.
He was wrong about that. Statehouse Republicans and Gov. Mike Pence have caused many problems for Indiana with a bill that is seen widely as protecting people who don’t want to interact with gay Hoosiers.
Pence and others deny Senate Bill 101, which passed last week and signed by the governor, does that. Indiana University professor of law Dan Conkle wrote in a guest column in the H-T that “the proposed Indiana RFRA would provide valuable guidance to Indiana courts, directing them to balance religious freedom against competing interests under the same legal standard that applies throughout most of the land. It is anything but a ‘license to discriminate,’ and it should not be mischaracterized or dismissed on that basis.”
But “a license to discriminate” is, in fact, how Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act is being seen all over the nation. And it must be asked: Why was this necessary? And why rush to pass it just as all Hoosiers — read those in same-sex relationships — are beginning to win the right to be treated equally?
It’s easy to conclude Indiana’s GOP lawmakers and Gov. Pence wanted to make a statement after the failure last year to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, followed by a federal court ruling that the state’s statutory ban was unconstitutional.
Just as they opposed the drive for the amendment last year, many in Indiana who are typically friendly to Republican policies rejected RFRA because they understood it would hurt Indiana. They could see it for what it was: something that would label the state as unwelcoming.
Major employers in the state — Eli Lilly and Cummins, most notably — spoke out against it and encouraged the governor not to sign it. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce opposed it. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican, spoke against it and with good reason: His city stands to lose big in the convention and event business it’s taken decades to build. Two major conventions already have suggested they will reconsider coming to Indianapolis because it’s in a state that just passed what their organizers believe is discriminatory law. One is a religious group, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
The NCAA, which is headquartered in Indy and will hold the Final Four there this weekend, has expressed alarm and the need to look again at the city and state.
There was no need for any of this, and the first line in Pence’s justification for signing the bill shows very clearly why.
“The Constitution of the United States and the Indiana Constitution both provide strong recognition of the freedom of religion.” He should have stopped there. But he added, “Today, many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action.” And there’s the problem. In Pence’s Indiana, the Legislature is smarter than the framers of the U.S. and Indiana constitutions.
This law is divisive, will damage the state’s economy, and sends a message to the rest of the nation that Indiana is backward, narrow-minded and worse.
It’s a straw stirring a poisonous drink.