Indiana Legislature's LGBT bid turning into a 'bathroom bill'

A conservative Republican, Holdman labored to include sweeping language in the 20-page proposal that anticipates everything from hiring to use of public facilities. He carved out exemptions based on religious beliefs.

But, as feared, opponents now brand the measure filed last month as a “bathroom bill.” Holdman’s effort to broaden the state’s civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity may soon be bogged down in questions about who should be allowed to use which restroom.

Mirroring objections raised to similar laws elsewhere, religious conservatives paint the measure as cover for predators to enter public bathrooms. Opponents to a similar LGBT rights bill in Houston, Texas, shot it down earlier this fall with ads showing a little girl confronted by a scary man in the bathroom.

“It’s an emotional flashpoint to get people fired up about the bill,” Holdman said. “It’s based in fear, not fact.”

Holdman said he was warned months ago by fundamentalist pastors that they would focus opposition in Indiana in a similar vein, claiming that gender identity protections threaten public safety.

The Legislature takes up the contentious measure in January. Anticipating the opposition, the proposal gives schools, businesses and other public places the right to develop policies for bathroom and locker room use. It would not be discriminatory to segregate restrooms and showers based on biological gender.

“It basically means nothing changes,” Holdman said.

That’s not how opponents see it.

Eric Miller, lobbyist for the conservative religious group Advance America Indiana, calls it “the most dangerous piece of legislation I’ve ever seen.”

In YouTube videos and on the group’s website, Miller warns that making gender identity a protected class will give men - including sexual predators, rapists and child molesters - legal access to women’s restrooms and locker rooms.

He wants legislation to specifically ban someone from entering a public bathroom of the opposite biological sex. Kentucky, Florida and other states have seen similar measures filed.

LGBT activists are critical of Holdman’s language, too, although for different reasons. They say it falls short of protecting transgender people, but they agree with the sentiment voiced last month by Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne.

“This bathroom issue is contentious,” he said. “It has people’s heads exploding.”

Peter Hanscom, manager of Indiana Competes, a business coalition that wants more LGBT protections, hopes to keep the debate focused not on bathroom stalls but the economy. Extending LGBT rights to employment, housing and other areas will boost the state’s ability to attract new business and talented employees, he said.

Hanscom also counters “bathroom bill” talk by pointing to the 200 cities and 18 states that protect gender identity and sexual orientation in law. There’s no evidence of an onslaught of predators in public bathrooms, he said.

“It’s still a crime for someone to enter a bathroom to do harm. That hasn’t changed,” he said.

Freedom Indiana, a coalition of LGBT activists and progressive church groups, echoes the point. Its transgender members are meeting with legislators to talk directly about the culture of fear around bathroom use.

“We’re countering fear-mongering with actual facts, that men in women’s bathrooms is not an issue,” said Chris Paulsen, campaign manager for Freedom Indiana. “I think most Hoosiers realize it’s just a scare tactic.”

Reframing LGBT rights measures as “bathroom bills” is a theme recurring across the country, said Jeremy Pittman, deputy field director for the non-profit Human Rights Campaign.

“Opponents are working to prey on the real fears that people have,” he said.

And they’re finding success. In November, Houston voters turned away a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance, which was supported by the business community and the city’s openly gay mayor, and had been expected to pass

Opponents, led by religious conservatives, reframed the debate as one of public safety. They labeled it the “bathroom bill” and printed banners that said “NO Men in Women’s Bathrooms.”

Their argument gained credence when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and Houston Astros All-Star Lance Berkman lent support.

“The proponents just didn’t know how to respond,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston.

“It takes time to make the case for transgender rights,” he said, but undermining it is much simpler.

“It’s easy to understand the scary message, ‘We don’t want men in bathrooms.’ It takes just a 30-second ad to convey that,” he said.