Indiana Republicans are facing a furious nationwide backlash over their draconian new “religious freedom” law which essentially gives business owners the right to deny service to gays and lesbians. The push-back against the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act has resulted in a few Indiana Republicans doing their best to soften the blows, but often coming up short.
For example, Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long and House Speaker Brian Bosma held a presser recently with the intent of explaining how the new law doesn’t actually allow Indiana businesses and individuals to discriminate against homosexuals on religious grounds. However, one of those nosy reporters who was just doing his job and asking questions threw a monkey wrench into that plan. The reporter astutely reminded Long and Bosma that the state of Indiana does not actually have a law which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The reporter said:
“You guys have said repeatedly that we shouldn’t be able to discriminate against anyone, but if you just ignore the existence of this law, can’t we already do that now? Can’t so-and-so in Richmond put a sign up and say ‘No Gays Allowed?’ That’s not against the law, correct?”
Bosma said that the statement was correct, with one caveat:
“If you were in a community that had a human rights ordinance that wouldn’t be the case.”
The reporter did not let up:
“But most of the state does not have that, correct?”
Bosma was then forced to admit that the reporter was correct.
Oops! THAT certainly didn’t follow the script.
As Raw Story reports:
“According to the Human Rights Campaign, only the cities of Bloomington, Evansville, Indianapolis, and South Bend prohibit discrimination against LGBT people, along with Marion County and Monroe County.”
In other words, only 4 cities and 2 counties in Indiana do prohibit discrimination against homosexuals, but the rest of the state, much of it rural and conservative, can deny service to them. How they might be able to tell if someone is gay or not is another story for another day.
Thankfully, even Republicans are starting to see discrimination against the gay and lesbian community as being a really bad thing, both morally and politically. And in the coming years, we can expect more push-back against these nefarious “freedom of religion” laws.
But these two Indiana bozos apparently don’t get it. One said at the end of the below video that the criticism his state has been receiving is “terribly unfair.”
