Indiana Senate Committee Advances Bill that leaves out the Transgender Community

Yesterday, Indiana's Senate committee stopped SB 66, an strong anti-gay RFRA bill.

But the fight wasn't over, later that day, the same group heard SB 100 and SB 344. SB 100 would create LGBT protections state wide, similar to the already existing anti-discrimination protections already based on race, disability and age. SB 100 would also give exemptions to small businesses and religious organizations.

SB 344 would allow cities to keep their ordinances, but not provide protections for the transgender community. Well, after the debate, SB 344 advanced to the Senate. The organization, Indiana Competes responded to the decision:

This evening, members of Indiana Competes, a coalition of more than 425 Hoosier businesses and associations, joined LGBT rights supporters and faith leaders to testify before the Senate Rules Committee. Senate Bill 344 was amended and passed out of committee and will be up for consideration by the full Senate. The following statement should be attributed to Peter Hanscom, initiative director of Indiana Competes:

“The legislature had a chance to strengthen Indiana tonight and make our state more competitive, but this opportunity was not seized. We want to believe the General Assembly is sincere in their efforts to pass meaningful legislation to eliminate discrimination, but tonight’s hearing showed Indiana missing another opportunity.

“The Hoosier business community has said from the beginning that Indiana must be a place that welcomes all, not most. We respect the legislative process and will continue to work with the General Assembly, but we will not support a final bill that does not provide for equal rights for the entire LGBT community.

“Business owners, faith leaders and anti-discrimination supporters have shared the message tonight that Senate Bill 344 is still woefully inadequate because it leaves out the transgender community and provides numerous allowances for additional discrimination. That is not the answer.”

Freedom Indiana also responded:

“Lawmakers still aren’t listening. Tonight, they took a bad bill and made it worse for LGBT people in our state who have to live each day in fear that they could be fired, denied housing or turned away from a public place for who they are.

“Senate Bill 344 continues to fall far short of ending legal discrimination against LGBT people in our state. As amended, it repeals the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act but replaces it with substandard protections that omit transgender people entirely and provide religious carveouts that undermine the very purpose of the civil rights law. We will continue to work with lawmakers to fix this bill, but we are disappointed that they have not made the substantive changes we know a majority of Hoosiers want to make our state open and welcoming to all people.

This battle continues.

New Poll shows Folks in Indiana are not Happy about RFRA

After all of the drama and foolishness, the people of Indiana have spoken... They're not here for RFRA.

Buzzfeed sheds the light of this poll:

A poll released Monday by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that 85% of Hoosiers say business owners should not be allowed to turn away a customer based on sexual orientation or gender identity, even if an owner says homosexuality violates their religious beliefs. Just 12% said a business should be allowed to turn away customers due to religion — 3% did not know or refused to answer.

Gov. Mike Pence had signed a religious freedom law amid furor on April 2.
“Pence and his supporters in the legislature may have imagined this issue energizing their base without any real collateral impact outside of a minority of LGBT activists,” says a polling memo issued by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. “They could not have been more wrong.”

At issue was a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which LGBT advocates said could be used by businesses to turn away clients. After an outcry and a plea from Pence to “fix” the bill, legislators approved an amendment that said the law could not be raised as a defense in discrimination cases.

Even despite those revisions, the pollsters found 53% of voters have an unfavorable view of Pence for signing it into law, compared with 38% who had a favorable impression of him approving the law. Meanwhile, 75% of voters said the law and the controversy around it was bad for business.

Overall, the poll also found Pence had a 39% favorability rating to 38% unfavorability rating.

The poll was conducted from April 7–9.

WATCH Rihanna Slams RFRA at March Madness Fest

This past Saturday at the March Madness Fest in Indianapolis, Rihanna had some words about Indiana's RFRA. In middle of performing her new song,'American Oxygen,’ she slammed the divisive law.

Watch

rih on the religious freedom bill pic.twitter.com/cOhGZ9TMKq
— Mikela (@innerwildflower) April 5, 2015

Interesting Quote: John Mellencamp

From John's website

In recent days I’ve been asked to give my opinion about what’s been going on in our state. Do I agree or disagree with the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act? What am I going to say, or do, about it? Am I going to cancel any of my upcoming Indiana shows? As many of the Star’s readers know, I have lived in Indiana since the day I was born, and I know firsthand that our state is populated with a great diversity of people who hold varying religious and political beliefs. The people in our neighborhoods are also racially diverse, live in different types of family units and also span a broad spectrum of sexual and gender identities. Indiana is now, in many ways, the American Melting Pot we all learned about in school. We are more than just tolerant, most of the time. We are welcoming.

So it is with a very heavy heart that I’ve watched the divisiveness that has occurred over our state government's actions. I am not questioning the sincerity of those who believe they have acted in the interests of religious freedom, but I am resolutely stating my opposition to this misnamed and ill-conceived law. It is discriminatory, hurtful, and a stain on Indiana’s national reputation. I understand Governor Pence and the state legislature are working on some changes to the law’s language, and I can only hope that they will do the right thing for the people of our state.

I have thought seriously about canceling my upcoming shows, not wanting the resulting tax revenues from ticket sales, concessions and the like to help fill the same government coffers that would enforce this terrible law. But then I realized that I would be letting our government divide us again, keeping me apart from my most important audience: My Indiana fans who have been there for me from the very beginning. Our evenings together will be about music, and hopefully this situation will be made right by the time I see you in May.

HRC breaks down the 'FIXED' Indiana RFRA

This is what Gov. Pence just signed

Indiana GOP Lawmakers release their 'Fixed' version of RFRA

These Repubs think they're slick.

After the huge backlash over the Indiana RFRA foolishness, Republicans vow to fix the law, by adding language that supposed to mirror the federal RFRA.

But this newer version does not add LGBT protections to the law, nor includes religious groups. This version is still weak and problematic.

Think Progress breaks it down:

Indiana’s RFRA will no longer trump state or local laws banning anti-gay discrimination: The fix provides that Indiana’s RFRA does not authorize businesses “to refuse to offer or provide services, facilities, use of public accommodation, goods, employment, or housing to any member or members of the general public” on the basis of a list of protected traits that includes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Another provision provides that the state’s RFRA law does not “establish a defense to a civil action or criminal prosecution” brought against someone who engages in such discrimination. This language appears broad enough to permit local ordinances protecting gay and trans rights to function against business owners with religious objections to LGBT people. It also would enable a similar state law to function, were the Indiana legislature to pass such a law in the future.

The fix does nothing about Hobby Lobby: At the same press conference where Pence announced that he was open to language protecting against anti-LGBT discrimination, he also cited the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision as an example of what he hoped the fixed RFRA bill would still accomplish. It remains to be seen whether the Indiana courts will interpret the state’s RFRA bill the way that the Supreme Court read federal RFRA in Hobby Lobby — that is, whether they will allow religious objections to be used to diminish the rights of others. It is likely, however, that state courts will follow the Supreme Court’s lead, as they often do when tasked with interpreting similar laws.

The fix does not apply to religious groups: Though the fix protects against discrimination by most individuals and businesses, it does still permit RFRA to be invoked by churches, nonprofit religious organizations or clergy who engage in discrimination.

LGBT people in Indiana gain no new rights from the fix: In the wake of the backlash against the original Indiana RFRA law, many LGBT rights groups hope that the state would enact anti-discrimination provisions protecting gay and trans people in Indiana at the state level. The fix includes none of these protections. What that means is that LGBT people who live in cities like Indianapolis will regain the rights they already enjoyed before the state RFRA law took effect, but LGBT people who were unprotected before this law will remain unprotected.

So, in other words, it's really not a 'fix'.

You can read it for yourself, here

New Poll: African-Americans are Not Fans of RFRA

When it comes to the Indiana RFRA, the younger crowd are not trying to hear that noise. But another group is also causing a stir.

Apparently, African-Americans are the outliers when it comes to LGBT rights being taken away. Why are they/we an outlier? Well, it's assumed that the support for gay marriage and LGBT rights go hand in hand. However, in a new study, that belief has been changed. While the support on gay marriage is slowly growing, my community overwhelmingly believes that no bill should limit the rights for the LGBT community.

Here's more:

African-Americans are by far the largest outlier of any of the 15 demographic groups (people were sorted according to age, race, religion and party affiliation) studied, according to Pew Research. Overall, African-Americans’ views resemble those of young adults and nonreligious Americans: 61 percent of black respondents favored laws requiring businesses to serve same-sex couples.

If you set aside responses from African-Americans, 83 percent of the variation in support for laws requiring businesses to serve same-sex couples just like straight couples is explained by support for same-sex marriage. Including African-Americans drops the variation explained to just 52 percent.

Why are African-Americans so much more in favor of anti-discrimination laws than same-sex marriage? That’s hard to say, but there are at least two opposing demographic forces at work.

On the one hand, the fact that African-Americans are more likely to be religious also makes them more likely to oppose same-sex marriage. On the other — as Claire Gecewicz and Michael Lipka of Pew Research point out — African-Americans (perhaps based on their own history of being discriminated against) are more likely than white people to say that gay Americans face discrimination.

In the case of businesses serving gay customers, opposition to discrimination was stronger than the pull of religion.

source 

In Indiana: Memories Pizza says they will Refuse Service to Gays, Now Shut Down!

Get ready to be trolled on Yelp


Ha! And what do you know, the pizza place shut down! TMZ reports:

Kevin O’Connor tells TMZ he's had to temporarily close his business after he told a reporter he would refuse to cater a gay wedding under Indiana's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act. O'Connor says he was immediately flooded by threatening phone calls, and social media postings.

O'Connor wants to clear up one thing: He says he would never deny service to gay people in his restaurant. However, due to his religious beliefs, he does not believe in gay marriage ... and that's why he wouldn't service one.
Meanwhile, he says the threats have been serious enough that he's closing his pizza joint ... at least until the dust settles.

This is golden.