A conversation with my daughter on the best response to the Indiana discriminate against the gays law.
My 25-year old, college educated and working daughter and I have been exploring the boycott reaction to the Indiana discriminate-against-the-gays law. She is dismayed by blanket calls for boycotts, pointing out that these boycotts will hurt gays and progressives in Indiana, essentially punishing them for being a minority of voters in this red state. Her solution is pouring money and people into Indiana to change it to a blue state, supporting the gay community in their quest for equality in the face of Tea party hate and bigotry. During the discussion, she pointed out that 1 out of 6 people in Indiana are on food stamps, and that gays are disproportionately poorer than the rest of the population. When challenged on the data she sent me two studies that conclude that gays - even controlling for higher income urban, educated gays - are poorer than the general population. The studies are here, and here.
Maybe her idea of turning Indiana blue - or at least purple- deserves some thought.
Indiana is solid red; Romney beat Obama by 10 points in the last election and has voted Democratic in only one of the past 10 elections. It's economy is OK - not great, but OK. Unemployment is 5.8%, lower than than the national rate of 6.2%, but higher than adjacent states like Ohio. Its state budget is OK - budgets were cut by 3.2% last year, but taxes have not been raised ( sounds like the GOP) and the deficit did not grow.
So,regardless of all this, will the gay discrimination law be the tool that changes Indiana from a red state to to an occasional tossup? Possibly. The Indiana Liberal Progressives are using it, as is the local ACLU. The demonstrations are a big deal; not only do they send a message to the Legislature and the governor that this is bad for business and political careers, it gets national media - keeps the story alive.
If we can continue to embarrass the state and turn it into a pariah as far as conventions and investment are concerned, we might have a chance. I don't have any local polling data on the state's reaction to the bill, but I noticethat 73% of milennials oppose this kind of discrimination nationally. Hopefully, a majority of the GOP voters will see this as dumb and that their legislature and governor are equally dumb. However, as I said, It will be a tough fight.
If progressive organizations can defeat some for the bill's co-sponsors and/or recall the governor, it would be a signal to the other 19 governors who have signed bigot laws there here is a price for pandering to hate to win elections. And that would be a victory.